EXCESSIVE BOND CLEARANCES

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 14, 11 October 1927, Page 8

EXCESSIVE BOND CLEARANCES

NEW CLAUSE WITHDRAWN At the instance of the Minister of Customs the House of Representatives last night agreed to the withdrawal from the Customs Amendment Bill of the clause giving power to regulate excessive bond clearances in anticipation of increased Customs duties. “I propose to ask the House,” said the Minister, “to drop this clause”— (loud “Hear, hears”) —“for the reason that it introduces a new and a very farreaching principle into our Customs law, and the commercial community and the chambers of commerce have not had an opportunity of considering it. To use a term from the card table: I am discarding from strength, and not from weakness, because I had decided to drop it before any representations were received.” The Minister added that there would be ample time for introduction of such a clause within the next few years before the tariff was again revised. He asked the House to drop the clause. Sir Joseph Ward (Invercargill) : That is what you call no trumps. (Laughter.)

The Leader of the Opposition (Mr. H. E. Holland) said that if the clause had not been incorporated in the Bill members would have been saved a good deal of correspondence. _ “I don’t know why it was drafted,” said Mr. T. M. Wilford (Hutt). The Minister: There is. a similar clause in England, but it is not so extensive as this. ■

It was pointed out by Mr. J. Mason (Napier) that no objection had been raised to the clause when the Bill was in its second reading stage, and some of the present talk about the trouble members had been put to was somewhat exaggerated. The clause was struck out.