HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12896, 30 August 1907, Page 9

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Thttbsdat, August 29. AFTERNOON SITTING. The House met at 2.30 p.m. LOCAL BILLS. Several local Bills were put through their final stages. TAitIFF BILL. Mr MILLAR moved the second reading of the Tariff Bill. i\lr 31 ASS 11.V said iio was not quite satisfied with tho i)rtfceut tanti, as the Government had ueparUd from tho practice previously adopted. He had uoptxi tho Government v.ould have placed tho whole of tiio raw material inquired in the colony's industries on the free list. He haa always tnougiit tho colony's taxution should be on tho linos that ail classes should pay a lair bhare, but tliis had been departed from, notably in tno case ol the tax on boots, where the heaviest tax was placed on the cheapest boous, and the tax reduced as the valued increased. Hβ deprecated a tax being placed on innchiuery required in industries and regretted that the Government had differentiated between machinery tor inuustiicH and machinery for motor cars, and ho thanked those members of the House who had carried an amendment on the previous night to place motor car machinery on the same basis as other machinery. .Referring to clause 20, he said its effect wae that persona who imported goods through indent agents would be penalised, aa it wa,-» intended to add the indent agents commission to the cost of the article, and levy a duty on the total thus arriVed at.

Mr MILLAR said the principal adopted had been to place as far ac possible all raw material on the free list, to remove duty from foodstuffs, and to avoid anomalies. He contended that the result of the duty on cheap boots would be to remove shoddy rubbish from the colony's market, and importers would import a better article, and wearers would get the benefit. He maintained that tho importation of this shoddy rubbish was the cause of shoddy being manufactured hero. He defeuded the Government's action in imposing a duty on boilers required for dairying purposes, on the ground that it was not purely a dairying implement, boilers being required in almoet every industry. Ono result of the new tariff waa that a Sydney manufacturing firm was about to establish new works in Wellington or Auckland that would give employment to 300 hands. He maintained that as population increased by this and similar means, the colony would consume the whole of the butter and other foodstuffs produced here. The second reading of the Bill was agreed to, and the House then went into Committee on the Bill.

In reply to a question, the PREMIER said New Zealand was giving to Kngland a great deal moro than was given to other countries under the new tariff. Ho was eatisfied, he added, that when tho tariff wae passed, Canada would be prepared to consider a reciprocal treaty. At clause 15, which provides that newspaper proprietors who have entered into a contract for the supply of paper for a period not exceeding three years, shall be exempt from the duty imposed under. the schedule of the Act, provided tha£ the puper is imported and entered for home consumption on or before the last day of December, 1908. .Mr MASSEY said this was a pioco of class legislation, and urged that tho clause should be struck out, as tho small noTVßpapcr proprietors, who purchased their paper locally, had to pay the duty. He added that there were importers who imported paper for supplying the smaller newsEapers, and the latter were not being snofited by the clause. Further, such an exemption was not accorded to importers of any other class of goods where importers had made contracte. Mr MILLAR explained tha+ tho provisions of the clause were intended to carry out to tho fullest extent the provisions of the Act of 1903 Mr AITTvEN contended that under the Act of 1903, the period of exemption expired at the end of 1906. He urged that the clause should bo altered to operate to the end of 1907 only.

Mr JAMES ALLEN urged that' it should terminate at the end of August, 1907.

Mr MILLAR said there nvra no doubt that the intention of the Legislature , was that the exemption in the 1903 Act tens to cease in 1906, hut owing to the wording of the eTauso, it applied to threo years' supply; consequently, any contracts that had been entered into had to be safeguarded. The provisions of iJio new clause, howover, provided for a definite timo when this exemption must cease. Mr OKEY said tJio clause gave undue preference to the larger newspapers. He suggested that paper for all newspaper proprietors Mioukl be exempted during the period provided under the clause. Eventually the Minister consented to amend the clause to make it operate until the 31st December, 1907, and this was agreed to. The House rose at 5.30. p.m.