MOTOR-CAR BUILDING

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 55, 2 September 1915, Page 8

MOTOR-CAR BUILDING

COACHBUILDERS' DEPUTATION TO MINISTER OF FINANCE. A deputation from the National Vehi- I cular Trades Industrial Union of Employers waited on Sir Joseph Ward (Minister of Finance) to-day, to lay before him certain matters affecting the motor- * car body-building industry. Mr. G. Dash, president of the employers' organisation, explained that the industry the deputation represented was the sixth most important in the Dominion. It found employment for 1500 hands, represented' £150,000 in wages, and £400,000 in manufactures. He pointed out .that largely owing to the exit of horse-drawn vehicles, the coachbuilding firms relied on the motor-body trade, and that even with 20 per cent-^the original -tariff— it was a difficult matter to struggle along. Under the new revision of 10 per cent. therr trade ■would be detrimentally affected, and it might be impossible for them to carry on. What the deputation wanted was a fixed price on bodies, or an additional 10 per cent, on the revised tariff on bodies. ' v Sir Joseph Ward promised to give the deputation's representations careful consideration. He pointed out that it was not a revision of the tariff that had been made in the Budget, but a. war-tax, as money had to be found to carry on the war.