IMPORT LICENSE DELAYS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 272, 17 November 1941, Page 6

IMPORT LICENSE DELAYS

THERE is unfortunately very solid ground for the complaint made at the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce meeting regarding delays in the issue of import licenses. When the Departmental mind has been made up the officials act with commendable promptitude and with an evident desire to minimise the effects of the restrictions as far as they can. But when questions of policy arise the delays before anything like a definite answer can be obtained add greatly and unnecessarily to the difficulties and • anxieties of the importer. As a rule the answer is in the negative, but occasionally the necessity for the article over-rides even Ministerial obstinacy, and then begins a long series of letters, telegrams and visits to Wellington. By the time some semblance of action has been reached the article has either disappeared from the country of origin or has become so scarce that higher prices must be paid. Sometimes a hunt for substitutes or alternative sources is insisted upon, which means further delays and still higher prices. In the ultimate essential goods have been received, but we have had to send away more, sometimes double, the sterling which would have sufficed under a reasonable system of discovering the essential demands of industry and of promptly satisfying those needs. Thus there are many acute shortages in the Dominion which would scarcely have been felt if there had been a quick-acting system in the issue of import licenses. Stockings provide - a useful illustration. After months of delay a permit was finally issued, but during the hold-up here other countries got in and bought the surplus abroad, and still the degrading "scrum" goes on when a few pairs are offered for sale. Continuity of supply was broken. Cases analogous to this are occurring every day, and the Dominion is paying dearly for the delays, both by higher prices and by the absence of many imports which the exercise of reasonable foresight would have provided.