TARIFF BATTLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 71, 24 March 1934, Page 16

TARIFF BATTLE.

DR. PAGE'S STAND.

CHARGES AGAINST MR. LYONS

«EOST OPPORTUNITIES." (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, March 16. Tlio otlier day, speaking at the meeting of a. country branch of the U.A.P., Mr. Binks, M.L.C., remarked that, while it is regrettable that the breach between the U.A.P. and U.C.P. is widening,' "Dr. Earle Page's recent statements are not tending towards an amicable understanding." This is painfully true; deed, it"is a very mild way of describing the bitter and reiterated attacks made recently by the leader of the Country party upon the Federal Government, and on Mr. Lyons, more especially, in regard to the tariff. At the annual Victorian conference of the U.C.P. yesterday Dr. Earle Page returned to the charge with renewed vigour. Once more he accused Mr. Lyons and his colleagues of having broken the pledge that they gave to the U.C.P. for "an immediate revision of the tariff, with the idea of lowering production costs in Australia." He described the Lyons Ministry as "a Government of lost opportunities," and generally charged it with negligence, cowardice and incapacity in terms that recall some of the best efforts of its Langite-critics. .« • But, in his desire to animate his followers, Dr. Page went far enough to, give his opponents a large number of openings. Among other things he told his audience that in returii for "unrestricted entry" of our goods Into British markets,-."we must be prepared to give similar treatment to British goods." If Dr. Page goes on talking in this strain, he will soon find his following reduced to the small minority of Cobdenites here, who still cling desperately to the "sacred traditions of free trade." Unchecked British Competition. The "Telegraph" naturally asks if Dr. Page is aware that we have 450,000 factory employees here, of whom not one-half could survive against unchecked British competition. As the "Telegraph" justly says, the unrestricted entry for goods which Dr. Page desires would mean "nothing less than putting 200,000 Australian workers on the dole, and a comparable of British farmers in similar plight." In justice to Dr. Page's undoubted intelligence, the "Telegraph" suggests that he does not seriously mean all this, but that it should be regarded as political propaganda. But there is no doubt that Dr. Page's crusade is having a serious effect upon the electoral prospects of the Nationalists.

Of course, it is not difficult to show that, quite apart from Dr. Page's curious views about international trade, his charges against the Federal Government are very largely without foundation. Just now Mr. Lyons and Mr. Stevens are "in progress" through the State, holding a succession of U.A.P. "rallies" at Goulburn, Orange and Singleton, three of our most important country centres; and these conferences are giving them their opportunity to answer Dr. Page. Speaking at Goulburn yesterday, Mr. Lyons repeated at length the defence he has already put forward against the Country party's attack, insisting that his Government has kept faith absolutely with the U.C.P. by reducing the tariff in many important directions in accordance with the advice of the Tariff Board. As the Prime Minister showed in the "Sydney Morning Herald" this week, the last Parliamentary session was devoted almost entirely to the tariff, with the result that "under the British preferential tariff 215 items have been reduced, and under the general tariff 176 have been reduced.

Present Tariff Lower. The general effect of these reductions is that "the present tariff, so far as the protective portion of it is concerned, is much lower than the 1921-8 tariff." As Dr. Page has constantly declared that he would be satisfied if the tariff were restored to the 1921-8 level, it is not easy to understand what he really wants now.

Of course, the simplest explanation is that lie wants to unseat Mr. Lyons, believing tliat if Mr. Bruce were restored to office as Prime Minister the old Page-Bruce alliance might be revived, and that the U.C.P. would have a better chance of getting generous terms from Mr. Bruce than from Mr. Lyons. Here, it is possible, Dr. Page may be mistaken. For Mr. Bruce is cautious and discreet, and Mr. Lyons in his Goulburn speech this week laid great, stress on his confidence in Mr. Bruce as regards both his ability and his loyalty. 2vor is it likely that Mr. Bruce has pleasant recollections of his previous alliance with the U.C.P. during the period 1922-29. Dr. Page, according to his admirers, was then the .driving, force and creative mind behind the Bruce Government/ What Mr. Bruce probably remembers best is that Dr. Page then earned the title of "the worst Federal Treasurer on record," and such a reputation as he then gained for recklessness and extravagance is not easily lived down.