TARIFF REFORM

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 301, 14 September 1921, Page 6

TARIFF REFORM

VIEWS OF MR. E. NEWMAN, M.P. Speaking at a meeting of the Farmers’ Union at Rongotea recently, Mr. Edward Newman, M.P., said he recognised that free trade was impossible in New ' Zealand, and that we must dontinueto collect revenue from our imports, ino tariff would be revised next session, and a commission had been going round collecting evidence, largely in the cities. In the interest not of the producers aloud, but of' the great bulk of the people, he earnestly hoped that a prohibitive tariff, -rwopld not be adopted. The manufacturers had already the protection of high sea freights and charges, and any industry that required more than that to keep it alive was not ■worth having. In the Mother Country the workers’ were in favour of free traile, and in this country, if they understood their own best interests, they would l .plump against protection, which raised the cost of living in order that a few favoured persons in the towns might make fortunes. Protection meant decreased imports, and as a result higher freights on exports, /which the farmers would have to pay." If ’ships had to come out in ballast, or with half cargoes, they must charge double freights on homeward shipments’. If New Zealand was to become the Britain of the South she must copy the Mother Country so far as her circumstances would, permit, and be a free land. The speaker hoped that tho workers and the farmers would realise the fallacy of the protectionists’ cry about keeping the money, in the country. In fact, it was taking money out of the consumer's pocket unnecessarily. Protection drove the people into the towns—that was, demoijjtrated by America and Australia. Free-trade England was the only country where recent census returns showed no serious migration into tho towns. Ho was as much in favour of tho development of our secondary industries as any m® n > provided that oauld be done without loss to the community. A revenue tariff which would encourage the importation of articles in daily use would benefit, all except the few industries now protected. If it was thought advisable to assist a local industry in tho earlier stages, a system of bonuses would be less objectionable than a protection duty, because they could bo more easily stopped. Mr. Newman urged all people to keep an eye on, Parliament when the tariff was uniti’der 'discussion. ’ Whatever was fixed would remain law for years, probably, and he was confident, in spite of all the plausible arguments about spending the money in the country, that a protective tariff would raise the cost of living and bo prejudicial to tho best interests of the vast majority of the people of this Dominion.