Supreme Court LOW DUTY ON U.K. MOWERS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28950, 18 July 1959, Page 17

Supreme Court LOW DUTY ON U.K. MOWERS

“N.Z. Manufacturers At Disadvantage*’

. The low duty charged on imported agricultural mowers, and the fact that British farm machinery manufacturers were supplied with steel at subsidised prices, gave the British exporting firms a considerable advantage over New Zealand manufacturers, a witness said in the Supreme Court yesterday during the hearing of the Pyramid mower dispute. The witness, Walter Arnold Hadlee, a public accountant, said in re-examination by Mr R. A. Young that the primage duty on imported mowers was 3 per cent.

Peter Colin Beere. Christchurch manager of Baldwin Son and Carey, patent attorneys, said that citations against the plaintiff’s application for a patent fbr the hydraulic mower had been made by the Patent Office examiners in Canada, ’’’here were also three actions against the patent application in the United States, citing several prior patent specifications. It was necessary to overcome these citations to obtain letters patent in America.

“In that respect I await further instructions from Pyramid Machines," said the witness. The patent application in Western Germany was still being examined, he added.

During yesterday’s hearing Mr Justice Adams, by consent, ordered Pyramid Machines, Ltd.. to give security for the costs of W H. Price and Son, Ltd., by paying into Court £2OO forthwith, the proceedings to be stayed until the security was given. It was the eighty-sixth day of the hearing.