COST OF TARIFF REVISION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 102, 2 May 1935, Page 23

COST OF TARIFF REVISION.

When the Customs tariff was lowered last year, it was claimed that the inevitable result must be to increase the volume of imported goods, or, in other words, to give to overseas workers the employment (and wages) which otherwise could have been given to workers in New Zealand. The latest official statistics reveal that this fear was well founded. For the first two months of 1935, as compared with the corresponding period in 1934, the following increases in imports have occurred: —

Apparel 39,000 , Boots and shoes 20,000 Woollen piece goods .... 7,700 Pipes and fittings 8.000 Confectionery 2,000 Canned fruit 3,000 Brushware 7,000 Cord and twine 1,700 Glassware 0.000 Matches 2,200 Medicines 5,700 Paint 13.800 Wireless sets 7,800 Tobacco 53,000 Cigarettes 30.000 Timber 42,000 Total 233,100 These, it should be emphasised, are not total importations, but only increases, and the figures refer to a period of only two months. If the goods had been made in New Zealand, instead of being imported, at least an additional £100,000 would have been distributed in New Zealand as salaries and wages. In other words, the amount of employment, the salaries and wages distributed and the spending power of the public of New Zealand have actually been £18,000 a week less than they would have been if, instead of buying more imports, wo had bought the same quantity of additional goods made in New Zealand. That is the hard fact we ought to face. How many more of our New Zealand workers —men, youths and girls —would have been employed? Roughly, perhaps, 5000. Moreover, the whole business community would have benefited also by having the spending power of the people £18,000 a week greater than it was. It is worth thinking over.

A. E. MANDER, New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation