TARIFF WANTED

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 44, 30 August 1928, Page 15

TARIFF WANTED

I «, INDUSTRIES AT HOME A MANUFACTURER'S VIEW FOREIGN COMPETITION "What Eugland needs to put her properly on her1 feet again is tariff protection," declared Mr. G. A. Laughton to a "Post" representative, adding that he thought she would get it. next year. Freo trade had been tho country's policy for thirty years too long. It had been all very well when England was practically the only manufacturing country; but that was not the case, now* and the days of free trade woro over. . ■ Mr. Laughton is the managing direc- | tor of a largo-manufacturing, firm in Birmingham, and his remarks were prompted by the reading in "Tho Post" of some opinions expressed as to the conditions prevailing in England. Some trades at Home, he said, were doing well, while others were showing signs of improvement. He was inclined, ho said, to share in the optimism expressed by others who had recently come to New Zealand from England rather than in the pessimism which was manifested in some quarters. The strike had been a good lesson to Labour, for tho British working man was really solid and eager to do his part in pulling things through. But the trouble was that England had had her home trade swept from under her feet bocause her manufacturers were forced to sell their goods at prices which foreigners were willing to take for their surplus goods. The dumping of foroign surplus goods on the English market robbed the local manufacturers of the chance to make a fair profit. Without that it was impossible for them to. provide new plant or modern factories, neither did industry attract capital when th6re was no chance of a reasonable return. It was impossible for any country to bo really prosperous on export trade alone —it was too uncertain: a sound home trade was necessary as a basis, but this could not be acquired without protection. ■ England, Mr. Laughton pointed out, got protection on motor-cars by a "fluke," more or less, during the war. Operatives in munition factories did so well that they bought cars, imported from America, England being too busy at that time to turn out motors for pleasure. The diversion of the people's savings to foreign sources brought about the tariff against foreign ears. Before that the English' motor-car manufacturer never had a chance of employing mass production methods because.the market had been flooded with cheap American cars. Until the last Budget.motor tires were imported into England free of charge, but there was now a duty of 33 1-3 per cent, on for- j oign tires, with the result that foreign companies were putting up works' in England. Money, therefore, previously paid in. wages upon , the making of foreign tires now circulated amongst the workers of Great Britain, with good results to the community. TOO BIG A BILL. For every £1 worth of manufactured goods exported, England imported 10s worth of manufactured goods —goods which she herself might to a large extent be making. The time would comewhen she could not afford to pay foilier huge importations of raw materials, food, and manufactured goods, and it would become necessary to stop the importation of one of these three items. Undoubtedly the first to be stopped would be the importation of manufactured goods. Last year England purchased from America some £170,000,----000 worth of goods, which comprised raw materials, food, and manufactured goods, the latter representing above £70,000,000. In -return England shipped to America about £60,000,000 worth of goods of all types. Added to that was the yearly payment of millions as war „ debts, thus creating a state of affairs which could not continue indefinitely, although the balance was kept to some extent perhaps by the inflow of American capital into England. The Safeguarding of Industries Act, declared Mr. Laughton, was too costly and complicated to work efficiently. The only remedy lay in protection, and lie felt convinced that when the British Government sought re-election next year it would realise that something had to be done to help the British manufacturer to regain the home markets and thus place him in a position to compete with foreigners in the export trade, that something being some measure of protection. DISAPPOINTMENT IN STOKE. "When I first stepped ashore in Australia," Mr. Laughton went on to say, "I entered a. telephone box, and tho first thing I noticed was that tho instrument was made —not in England or in Australia. In your Wellington shop windows I notice too many things made in America or in Germany, and my discoveries have disappointed me somewhat. Not that I blame either country, but it is obvious that England must supply her own natural markets with her goods if her manufactures are to thrive. As a matter of fact you in New Zealand'do more to encourage by means of a tariff the manufacture of English goods than does the Government at Home, and this will be the case until protection comes.". ... English manufacturers, Mr. Laughton added, were beginning to study the colonial markets, but all of them were not so alive or up-to-date as they should be. English manufacturers could and would produce the goods if given the* chance and encouragement. Quality and novelty were there, but unde,r present conditions, in the absence of: protection, unless workers came down to the Continental level, which they would never do and should not do, mass pro: duetion and a healthy homo market and export trade were practically impossibilities.