AMERICAN WOOL TARIFF.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1032, 23 January 1911, Page 8

AMERICAN WOOL TARIFF.

SOME interesting details. The subject of the United States tariff Mi woo-lhas aroused, so much interest in New Zealand that some details which wefe not included in tho article appearing on Saturday, are given here. During tho presidential campaign of li) 08. Sir. Taft, this -Republican candidate, promised that if. elected he would .convene tho sixty-first Congress in a special session f6r the purpose Of revising the existing' tariff law, known as . the Dingley tariff. Mr. Taft was elected, artd, on March I.V. the new tariff was introduced by the Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means,' Mr. Payne. The proposed'' revisal was debated in thg House for three' weeks, sent to the Senate on April 9, and opened by Senate oir July 8, signed on August 5, and went into operation en August G.. This;was tho first attempt in eleven years to revise the tariff and there was an outcry from' some of the manufacturing and merchant quarters. The House Committee, .on. Ways and Means, under special authority, of the House, sat from. November 1 to March 15 for the purpose of giviug public hearings .on proposed . changes in -the Dipgley law. An enormous quantify ..of testimony was. taken, and "the evidence when printed filled nine largo-volumes. Whilethe new tariff is expected to raise a revenue of about 333,000,000 dollars, tobacco omitted, which represents an increase'- of about 4,000,000 dollars; -the revenue from .wool and manufactures of wool will be less. Tho, value of the imported wool artd .woollen goods ." was 62,831,601 .dollars' per year at the time nf the tariff revision. Under the Dingley Jaw; a revenue from, thosfi- importations was 36,501.217 dollars, . anil under the Payne, tariff it is expected fo be 30,435,453 dollars, a falling off of 125,764 dollars. So it-will be seen" that the subject of discussion is not. that the tariff has been raised, but. that a tariff exists.

- In the long schedule enumerating the •duty on the various descriptions of every class ■ of- article' concerned, but one line matters much' to Now Ze.iland. "Unwashed wool, liot on tho skin, 11 cents per 1b.," is the line, arid that-is the auty under the now law which we arc concerned with. As matters of interest, it may bo stated that' unwashed wools on the skin hear a 10 cent? duty, washed wool, not 'on the skin. 22 cents', and trashed wool,- scoured, 33 cents. '

in any of the cases mentioned has thfi- tariff been altered; it is no more now' than under the Dingley law.' 'In.the case_ of. certain' wool .manufac-factures-there have been. reductions, and in .other., instances incrtas.es, but. on the whole the revision 'of. the scali> under the heading of "wool" works out at a reduction. _ The remarkable thing is that the reductions are on the manufactured and not on the raw article, as the States grow a mere bagatelle of wool.