The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun. WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 1939. IMPORT RESTRICTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 108, 10 May 1939, Page 10

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 1939. IMPORT RESTRICTIONS.

For the cause that lack* assistanoc. For the vyrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that tee can do.

No change worth making, said the Prime Mini.-tcr mi Fri<l;iy, could be made without some "incoiivrnifiii'e." He was replying; to u tlcputation of retailers which had described the t'ffectn of the import restrictions, and ho said that the Government wanted to cause "as little inconvenience as possible tor all sections of the community." But "inconvenience" is a misleadinply mild word to use in describing the effects of the restrictions. An importer who has to close his business, a retailer who has to close his shop, and the worker who loses his employment, in direct consequence of a Government decision —all these are entitled to use much harsher words to describe their condition, and they will not be comforted by the statement that the decision was made in the national interest. True, the national interest demanded action, but five months' experience of the kind of action which the Government decided upon has convinced very few people that it chose the best method to achieve the end. Even from the Government's point of view the first application of the policy was a failure. .Sterling funds were not saved; the total volume of imports was not reduced. That having been realised, the Government has tightened the restrictions, in the hope, apparently, of nchieving in the second six months of the year the objective which it originally hoped to reach in twelve months. The consequences, already appearing, are certnin to be far-reaching.

The Prime Minister invited the retailers' fleputntion to submit "a better alternative if one can bo found," and the invitation should be seriously considered by all business organisations, though they nre entitled to reflect thnt the invitation would have been more timely and profitable if it had been given before the policy was adopted originally. Granted the necessity of restrictions, how could they—how can they now—be applied in such a way as to bring , about a rough equality of inconvenience and loeaf That there is no such equality now is notorious in business circles. The basis of the restrictions—the volume of imports in 1938—favours some and is ruinous for Others. No account is taken of stocks held, or of the financial strength or weakness of th« individual firm, or of the range of articles whulh a firm bought unsold. One consequence, which the deputation stressed, is that a number of small businesses are likely to disappear; others, large or fortunately placed, will bo the ultimate beneficiaries. That is a consequence not desired by anyone, and it should not be impossible to devise, if not an alternative to the present policy, at least a series of amendments which will lessen such of its effects as are capriciously unjust.