"DOMINATED BY POLITICS."

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 198, 23 August 1928, Page 9

"DOMINATED BY POLITICS."

NEW TARIFF CRITICISED.

MANUFACTURERS DISAPPOINTED.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

DUNEDIN, tips day.

Keen disappointment with the new tariff, as finally placed on the Statute Book by the Government, was expressed by the executive of the Dunedin Manufacturers' Association in a report submitted to the annual meeting.

The executive stated that, generally speaking, there was a noticeable absence of any attempt by the Government to put into practical effect the sentiments expressed by Ministers of the Crown on many occasions in favour of fostering and developing the Dominion's manufacturing industries, especially those employing a volume of labour and utilising a generous measure of the Dominion's raw materials, and materials of British origin. It could only be presumed that political considerations dominated the position.

The outstanding feature of the sew tariff was the substantial increase in the preference conferred upon British manufacturers as against their foreign competitors. The New Zealand manufacturers endorsed this principle, as they were staunch advocates of trade within the Empire, nevertheless they Teplored the fact that equally generous treatment commensurate with the higher level of wages made compulsory in the Dominion by Arbitration Court awards had not been accorded to industry in that portion of the Empire which should be the first concern of the Government —the Dominion.