NO FISCAL POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 16, 19 January 1921, Page 6

NO FISCAL POLICY

A correspondent writes suggesting that "in considering the .question of altering the Customs tariff, we should first of all determine the objects to be aimed at." He goes on to advocate a tariff protective of secondary industries, at the same time emphasising the need of revenue. It seems to The Post that as a protective tariff is not, or ought not to be, a revenue tariff, one of the first things to try to decidp is to what extent the purpose of the tariff should be protective and to what extent rcvenueTproducing. And that requirement suggests another. Should not a tariff-compiler also decide what proportion of the country's total revenue should be drawn from Customs, and what proportion from other sources? Having fixed the proportion and amount to bo drawn from ; Customs, the tariftcompiler would then be in a better position to ascertain what he needs in the way of duties upon use and what h© needs in the way of duties against use. Concerning the latter division, our correspondent quotes the "amazing progress," under protection, of Australian secondary industries, which " are already securing large orders from New Zealand for goods which could and Should be produced here." Protective duties, or duties directed against the use of the imported articles they affect, are a weapon which a moderate protectionist uses only in the right place; and the tariff-compiler would first have to decide what industries are worth protecting. Any revision of protective duties will' no doubt incur the intervention of the "New Protectionists," and thorny questions may be raised. But the complexity of the subject is ,not a reason why the Government should go into it without a policy; it is really a reason why the Government should havo a clear,policy that the public can under-' stand. Unless politicians prefer, darkness to light, our correspondent's demand for a clearly-thought-out policy will surely not' be resisted. . As to his protectionist advocacy, one circumstance in its favour is that the advance in worldwages has possibly reduced the advantage that the older countries once enjoyed in labour-cost; and hydro-electric-ity _will improve New Zealand's power factor. The Government should prove its fitness to lead by giving the country a lead. There is a defence aspect as well as an economic aspect. Our correspondent is justified in his observation that "had it not been for the duties on woollen goods and boots and. shoes, we would never have had the mills and factories that were found so essential in providing equipment for our soldiers;"