INTERFERENCE WITH TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 57, 7 March 1936, Page 8

INTERFERENCE WITH TRADE.

(To tie Editor.) Unemployment, depressions, glutted markets, lack of confidence, tightness of money, peace at the price of preparing for war and high artificial price levels arc. all without exception effects and not causes. These effects, then, »re relative to some cause or other, traceable, in my opinion, direct to tlie absence of competition among nations and the free exchange of goods and commodities. This interfering with and hampering trade, together with° fostering and sheltering uneconomic industries behind tariff walls, is unquestionably the outstanding contributing factor to the world's woes and the people's sufferings. The policy of trying to confine goods and commodities to any one single country and thus restricting supplies, merely diverts manufacture to other lands or causes other countries to start uneconomic industries behind tariff walls likewise. Eeferring to New Zealand, we are a part of a world Power, tlie British Empire, consequently our responsibilities arc scattered over the world; isolation, then, is a very dangerous path to follow —we cannot turn our eyes away from the struggles of others. The British Commonwealth is not the result of selfish isolation, industries sheltering behind hostile tariffs, but of a bold, fearless and progressive policy of free trade, her ships going and coming across the seas, trading for mutual advantage, winning the confidence and friendship of other nations—that was the basis of Britain's industrial and commercial greatness. Tariffs cannot possibly increase or assist production, but by proven facts these trade barriers actually blockade the use of goods and commodities. In conclusion, then, it is well within the realms of correctness to state that a tariff is nothing more or less than a "dole" given to the few at the expense of the many. HARRY WOODRUFFE.