WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1905

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2696, 4 October 1905, Page 2

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 1905

The company or trust which has been started m America for the purpose of getting command of the agricultural implement trade has caused considerable anxiety to those engaged m turning out agricultural implements m this colony. All these implements and machines are at the present time free from duty; the consequence is that farmers procure them at. a minimum of cost, yet several colonial firms able to hold their own against foreign competition to pay good wages and show satisfactory balance sheets as the results of their year's working, It is now asked by these firms and their em ployees, m anticipation of the commencemeat of operations by the American company, that a very substantial duty shall be imposed on agricultural implements.' It is impossible not to recognise the importance of local manufactures, but it is equally impossible not to recognise that, it is clearly to the interest of farmers, and as a natural sequence to that of the country, that the greatest industry of the colony shall not be hampered m the slightest degree by any artificial means. The heavy taxation which the farming community pay upon nearly every article they use to foslter industries for the benefit of a few is already a grievous burden; they are m addition heavily handicapped by their country, being the most distant from the European markets. In the matter of agricultural implements it has been stated, and we believe truly, that American agricultural -machinery can be brought into this colony at a lower cost than it could be turned out here under the most favourable conditions ;as a matter of economics, therefore, it is to our interest to import it. Those who have to fight m the markets of the world should" not be compelled by their own legislature to carry a crushing weight of taxation. All other im-dustries-are of little importance com-, pared with that of the farmer, and it would be unfair and impolitic to impose a severe burden upon the many for the sake of the few. There is a fi - ' x iora that it is the consumer who pays custom duties. The whole duty therefore would fall upon the farmer, who would be powerless to recoup himself by exacting anything for his produce, the price of which except for a few perishable products, is ruled by the' prices prevailing m the outside markets. It has been proposed tfiat if duties are imposed upon American goods, that New Zealand manufacturers shall give a guarantee that v the .price of the tools and machinery they are now making shall not be increased. We have had many new departures m New -Zealand, and some few of these have led to satisfactory results, but to bur mind there is not the remotest chance of this last proposal being "given effect to. Imagine a legislature passing an Act that the prices of: spades, ploughs- and pick-axes shall not exceed specified sums? The guarantee would not be worth, the paper it was written upon if it were not enforced by law. If this American company determines to secure the New Zealand trade it will do so m spite of all possible efforts to prevent them. Customs duties will not prevent them; the only -effect of them would be to make the New, Zealand farmer pay the amount of the duty m addition to the price the Americans are ready to sell at. Farmers must watch that they are' not caught napping, or the present Government, which is dominated by Trades Unionists may do something which may prove very injurious to their interests.