EMPIRE CO-OPERATION

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 293, 6 September 1932, Page 9

EMPIRE CO-OPERATION

Secondary Industries DRAPERY TRADE VIEW “To-day, we have more need than ever to be liberal-minded in our attitude to other countries and to rid our commercial and political life of the selfishness that has so often put a severe tax upon Inter-Empire friendship,” states the official organ of the New Zealand Federation of Drapers, Clothiers and Boot Retailers, in a review of the Ottawa Conference decisions. The opinion is expressed in the article that in the main the business men of the Dominion have caught the spirit of Ottawa and have, by their public statements, evinced a desire to further the ideal of Empire co-operation. iThe review continues: —“How the Government is going to tackle the problems that are the outcome of the conference is the question that all men are asking. The issues are so involved that expert outside advice will have to be enlisted. In the matter of drapery, clothing and footwear, for instance, the Government will, we hope, ask the federation for a report on the question of local and imported goods from the retailers’ point of view, so that tariffs might be adjusted in order to place the British manufacturer and his New Zealand competitor on the most equitable terms. “Matters such as these should be accorded strictly non-political investigation on a purely scientific basis, each case being treated on Its own merits. While no local industry of any standing need fear injury, it is inevitable that certain uneconomic industries that now enjoy quite uncalled-for protection must fight their own battles or go under. It behoves us to conserve our energies for the development of, firstly, our primary industries, and secondly, those of otir secondary industries which can be made assets to the Dominion and to the Empire.”