TARIFF CHANGES

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 149, 23 March 1928, Page 12

TARIFF CHANGES

MR. PRATTEN’S ADDRESS TO BUSINESS MEN PROTECTION OF HOME INDUSTRY IMPERIAL ECONOMIC UNITY An important statement on Australia’s tariff policy was made by the Hon. H. E. Pratten, Minister of Customs for the Commonwealth, in addressing a large gathering yesterday under the auspices of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. -The Hon. W. D. Stewart, New Zealand Minister of Customs, was among those present. In expressing thanks to the chamber for the courtesy extended to him on this, his first official visit to New Zealand, Mr. Pratten remarked that such bodies were important organisations, comprising, as they did, large numbers of members representing the commercial interests of this fine city. This, apparently, was the first time that ati Australian Minister for Trade and Customs had, during his term of office, come to Wellington. With over thirty years’ business experience behind him, he had had the honour of holding a. portfolio in the- present Commonwealth Government for nearly four years, his position bringing him closely into touch with the trading, commercial, manufacturing, and developmental activities of Australia. His Department’s activities included all tariff questions, bounties, preferential treaties, film censorship, and naviga-. tion laws, and the administration of the Acts and regulations in connection with all these matters, including special Customs legislation. He had been in the Dominion a little over a week, and during that time, by the courtesy of the Prime Minister and the Government, had seen a little of this delectable country, and a few of its unique beauties; but his great pleasure in being here was because he conveyed a message of amity from the Government of the Commonwealth to the people of New »?aland. Their aim was, if possible, to improve the trade relationships between Australia . and New Zealand, that would hurt neither Dominion, but would mutually benefit each other. Ideals and Destiny the Same.

“We in Australia,” proceeded Mr. Pratten, "cannot forget that New Zealand put the letters ‘N.Z.’ into the word ‘Anzac’—the hallmark of world fame and significance. (Applause.) Neither can we forget that your race, your ideals, your problems, and your destiny, are the same as ours. The Commonwealth of Australia has an area of three million, square miles. It is as large as the United States of America, and is over one-fifth of the area of the whole British Empire. It is three-fourths the size of Europe, and this great area, coupled with a liniit- / ed population of six and a half raillions, renders the problem of Australian development and population not an easy one. You are in much the same position, with a population of one and a half millions, in a land of over 100,000 square miles. "In Australia we have commenced the second twenty-five years’ period of federation, and have recently entered into possession of our baby ‘Washington’— ’ our new Capital of Canberra in the Federal Territory. Our status as an all-British community is reflected in the fact that we are nearly 97 per cent. Anglo-Saxon-Celtic. We must be judged from the standpoint of two fundamental principles which are almost a religion with our democracy, these being an adherence to the policy of a White Australia and a continuance of a high social standard of living. “Geologically we are the oldest and democratically perhaps the newest of all countries’ and communities. Our friendliness to you as a sister Dominion is undoubted. ’ Our understanding of you is perhaps more limited, but our problems are practically the same, and our development is along parallel lines to yours. We have every sympathy with you in the complexities of your own development. Our growing pains are often share and frequent, and' are partly ‘reflected perhaps in tariff changes. The Tariff Question.

'•■There is' also a close resemblance between the principles that guide the actions of the Parliaments of both countries. We have, as you have, developed substantial preferences in our tariffs to the .Motherland. We take more British goods per head of population than any country in the world, except New Zealand. We believe in giving preference to our kinsmen in the Old Country because we never forget that:we have been allowed to grow up into lusty young nationhood under the sheltering -wing of the British Navy. (Hear, hear.) In the Tariff of November, 19'27, the principles laid down were: (a) The reduction or abolition of duty on some popular and revenue-producing lines in everyday use by the people; fb) a further' measure of protection to many Australian industries; some of a national character which, in the opinion of the .Government, must be preserved and developed; (c) the expansion and extension of the policy of preference to British trade in the Australian market as an earnest of the Government’s desire to help towards a closer and'well-bal-anced Imperial economic unity, provided’ always the interests of Australia are conserved. “Summarised, the effect of this tariff is to attack approximately £-24,000,000 worth of trade, of which £0,000,000 is British and £18,000,000 foreign. It is anticipated that the result will be that £6,000,000 more trade will come to Australian factories, half of which will be British and half foreign. Britain should also be able eventually, without anv detriment to any present Australian industry, to capture half the remaining trade in our market, so that the net gain to Empire trade will be over £10,000,000, of which half will come to Australia and half to Britain. “Our tariff legislation requires as a preliminary to any Parliamentary action that evidence must be given before the Tariff Board in public and on oath for 'and against any application for tariff revision. In the course of investigations we have many knotty problems, one of which was in recently deciding whether a tomato is a fruit or a vecetable! (Laughter.) “We have amongst our people the same as you have—all sorts of interests that are opposed to each other; these must be balanced up. Had I a fairv wand, I would insist that at times in our public life the lion should lie down with the lamb; that our manufacturers and our farmers should occasionallv‘call each other jolly good fellows, and that our various political partieshould at times admit that there is a little good in the other. Local Products Preferred. X “There is, however, one thing above political party interests that has developed in Australia in recent years and that is a growing national sentimeo to prefer the goods made in our own country. The number of people m rapidly increasing who believe that Aus tralia can be best developed by the crea-

tion of more employment and new jobs. “This is the quickest way of populating our comparatively empty country, and we are therefore increasingly giving a practical preference in our purchases to the goods made by our own people. At Canberra many of our Parliamentary representatives proudly boast that their dress and sentiment are Australian from head to toe. The safety and supremacy of the British Empire can be greatly assisted and strengthened by the ties of trade. We need to realise that for every £1 spent on goods made in our own country or in the Empire we have both the goods and the £l, .but if the £1 is sent to foreign lands we get the goods only and the overseas trader receives the money.

“We in Australia believe in taking practical steps towards an Empire economic unity; we believe in keeping money in the British family and we are watching your development in this Dominion with intereV and sympathy. The problems of distribution and navigation over a long coastline and scattered centres are the same. We can both be isolated from world centres. Our international problems are the same. We have our industrial troubles and you have yours, and I think that our national problems are so identical that we can learn much with advantage from each other.

“When in Britain last year, one of the leading statesmen told me that Britain would do anything for Australia or New Zealand that did not hurt her, and 1 replied that I felt sure that Australia or New Zealand would do anything for Britain under the same circumstances. Can we not say the same of New Zealand and Australia? We are each entirely pro-British. With the development of Australian population and wealth our aggregate trade with Britain still increases and what they lose in the swings is gained in the round-abouts. So might it be with you. Governments are always criticised for doing things they should not do, and for not doing things they ought to do, but the great parliamentary business of to-day is to keep the equilibrium of the people’s progress and advancement, adding to their opportunities, happiness and content, and laying the foundations of the morrow. “The solution to some ol'Tlie economic problems confronting us can largely be found in a greater interchange of Empire products, and any and all proposals to this end that allow for each other’s political problems should, ati<J I am sure will, be welcomed on both sides of the Tasman Sea.’’ (Applause,)