ENGLAND'S TARIFF PROPOSALS

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 31, 6 August 1919, Page 3

ENGLAND'S TARIFF PROPOSALS

THE REGENERATION OP INDUS- ' : TRY.

The affirmation by Britain of the principle of Imperial preference is regarded by the Prime Minister as being a great feature of the riew tariff proposals. Apart from the establishment of this principle the proposals are not specially significant as regards the Dominion, since the articles affected are not items in

New Zealand's export trade. No common policy on the subject has been determined. Each Dominion as well as the Mother Country is left to determine its own tariff policy in its own way. At the time when the delegates left for Home the industrial outlook in Great Britain was serious, unrest and difficulties of reconstruction being the contributing factors. It was considered, nevertheless, that signs of an improvement were already being manifested, and hope was entertained that the progress towards better conditions would continue. A general return to the stability of conditions was hoped for as the unsettling effects of long years of war passed away. Industries for supplying material for public works in New Zealand, Mr. Massey stated, were returning to their normal functions after having devoted practically all their energy and resources to the production of munitions. Some time must elapse, however, before they would be producing anything like their pre-war output; in fact, it would be two years, in his opinion, before they were producing on the same scale and at the same rate as before the war. This applied to practically all industries- to which we were accustomed to look for our supplies for the purposes mentioned.