Evening Post. THURSDAY, JULY 18, 1907.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 16, 18 July 1907, Page 6

Evening Post. THURSDAY, JULY 18, 1907.

THE NEW TARIFF. The opinions of various leading business men which we published yesterday represent pretty accurately the attitude of public sentiment towards the tariff proposals of the government. Here and there there was a discordant note from the representative of some industry which felt that it had been left out in the cold, or the discoverer of some glaring proof of the iact that the new tariff will not be entirely free from the anomti. lies in which^the old ono abounds. "Are motor-cars a necessary of life?" was the pertinent enquiry of Mr. D. M'Lareii, who, as a Labour leader, champions a class which will have to forego eucli necessaries, whatover the tariff may say nbout them. "Motor-cars free and bicycles dutiable" was also the one typical anomaly selected by Mr. Aitken, M.11.R., in hk laconic criticism of tire revised tariff. When a general tariff of a protective character has once been •idoptcd, it is always easy to get up a pluusiblo argument for or agiunst any particular tax that may be mentioned; end wo therefore do not propose to commit ourselves' too hinviedly to the pon. tion thut a jilnusiblc case cannot be mudo out for the exemption of motor-oars from the 20 per cent, duty which they have hitherto paid. Hut we vie quite at v loss to eco how, from the .standpoint of pither consum.gr. of rjanufactureiy. tim.

total remission of this duty is to be justified while bicycles continue to pay at the rate of 20 per tent, as before. Locally the bicycle no doubt still represents the larger industry, but the otTier is steadily growing, and the Rouse and Hurrell Company's, manager gave reasons for increasing the duty on motor-cars to 33 per cent, rather than reducing it. "The coach-builders of the colony," he urged, "were now in a position to manufacture the bodies of cars, and engines were being made in Auckland, he understood ... At Homo the bodies of motor-cars were being made by conchbuilders, and that hail now become a department of tlie trade." Sir Joseph Ward must have some better reason than compassion for the poverty of_ the average purchaser of ~a motor-car to induce his departure in the present instance from the normal theory of our tariff, but at pre&ent we cannot pretend to suggest what it is. More serious complaints were those of the spokesman of the woollen and' tho engineering industries. Cheap competition of inferior articles is the most obviously legitimate grievance of the former of these industries, and it was strongly urged by Mr. Exley, of the Wellington Woollen Manufacturing Company, that "it would have. been an excellent thing for the Government to do for the clothing trade what it proposed doing for the footwear industry, namely, pufc Is per lb. specific duty ori low-class woollens in addition to tho ad valorem duty." But in his lament that tho Government is doing nothing, for tho clothing manufacturer, Mr. Exley overlooks the definite statement in the Budget with "egard to the importation of shoddy. "The matter," says the bolonial Treasurer, "is one of an extremely difficult nature to deal with The mere imposition of a duty will net suffice, and in my opinion separate legis lation will be necessary. Tho wholr> subject has been examined with a view to submitting proposals to check a system under which our people are imposed upon by not knowing the class of articles they are purchasing." For the ironmasters Mr. J. P. Luke indulged in an even more mournful jeremiad over a revised tariff which had "turned out ,tc be nothing but ft rcvenue-produung machine." Such a statement is, of course, an exaggeration, and it is just because "the Colonial Treasurer is prepared to sacrifice revenue on a ltvrge number of articles in common use that his tariff is so popular with the average man. This popularity was well testified by Messrs. H. Boauchamp and G. Shirtcliffe, both of whom suggested that cocoa might reasonably have been added to the fr.:e breakfast table. What the Budget proposes is that British cocoa should continue oubject to the foimer rate .of 3d per lb., but that an additional 20 per cent, should be placed on the foreign article. "A better dispensation," says Mr. Beauehamp, "would be — British cocoa (res, foreign 3d per lb." Special satisfaction 1 is expressed by Mr. fehirtclifle with the letontion of the duty on Hour, and we j think that the careful reasoning of* the j Colonial Troasurer will, on the whole, be approved by the public, though not without considerable- misgivings. There are grave roasons for supposing, as he Mats, | that the Tecent vagaries in the price of the primal necessary of life are really due to artificial causes which would bo t« id to rest by the removal of the duty. "If upon tho very closo and thorough (inquiry I am now making," cays Sir Joseph Ward, "I am satjgfkd that tho present price of broad is due to any monopolistic ring or combination, tho Government will not hesitate to intio(luco legislation this year to defeat such ;i< combination, aud secure to our- consumers this nefcessary article of diet . at v fair competitive price. And with tho responsibility that my , position entails I would impress upon tho flour-millers of the country that in therr best interests they should remove any cause that exists for tho present position continuing." Those to whom this warning is addicssod had better head it, or the next amendment of the tariff may be little to their liking.