TARIFF COMMISSION

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 148, 26 June 1933, Page 10

TARIFF COMMISSION

INDIVIDUAL REQUESTS) ; . I

ENGINEERING TOOLS j

/Individual representations ' wero heard today before- the Tariff /Commission, which is now sitting ■;' |v- the Customs House.' The Comptroller of Customs (Dr. G. Craig ) preside tl, and associated with him were Profe asor B. B. Murphy, and .Messrs. J. B. G; jw and G. A.- Pascoo : . j

Mr.1 H. -L;- Green, . director .(if-the ' Standard Engineering Co., LW<, who had with him the works manager, Mr. W. T. Brown, said that at -present clips, tags, rings, and other -articles i" for the identification of li^estoc J'<, poultry, fish, and. other animals wer. 3 admitS ted duty free, and they urged I a duty of 20 per cent, on English fimportare tions, 35 per cent. Empire,' an £1 45 per cent, foreign. On tools pe< to jt metal working, which were a i present c duty-free from British countrie ,« and subn. ject to 25 per cent, if fror p foreign tg sources, they asked for the i inpositiou of 20 per cent, on British ! hakes, 35 j r per cent, on Empire, and 45 jper cent. j e on foreign. On metal stamp'fugs made ie from sheet metal not excecdi jig o.oßoiri v _ in -thickness in brass, copj jsr, iron, |,j aluminium, or steel, they d" id not dee. sire any alteration in the < futy of 20 l( j per cent, on English import ations, but j n .~ asked for 35 per cent, on ii pportations y from other Empire countri ss, and 43 per cent, oh foreign makes. ! Their reae sons for asking for the incr eased tariff a m were the higher rates of pages paid ° c and the restrictions impose ji\ upon met dustry by the Arbitrate m Court's ,^ awards. The' cost of nvjierials imL. ported from; England had**" also increased. Their plant was ji capablo of controlling five or six tin |es the present turnover, and in the la JRt two years of it had not been working s jfc' more ■ than c- a third of its capacity. Tl ipy had suffi[e eient equipment' to employ an addi>n tional thirty men, and the ire was suffln- cicnt scope in the tool-m riking indus- -- try, in New Zealand to ! employ 100 10 skilled tradesmen. • \ ill - Mr. P. J. Lee, factory* manager of c- tho Duthie Steel Caserne fat.'Co., Ltd., ie asked for the retention < \i the present' p- duty on steel windows, which had been c- increased in 1928. It ha Ii been stater! [f that the increase-in the tariff had put a- up the price of these wii ijdows, but the r- price wa,s lower now, tl ifan it was'in >r 1928. It reply t^ the jHissertiou that y the exchange rate was .siijting as addijr tional protection, he pointed out that it it had increased the cb:t|t of imported it materials and freight cj.iarges. His )r firm used only British j .steel bars, whereas some of the British manufaer- hirers used; Belgian baps. ■' The indus;e try in New Zealand was already Buffer--3-^ ing from the depressic ii in tho build,o ing trade, and if son' of the work now. being done locall; t went to Eiigr. land there- wQuld be I further uneiniS ployment. ;. Mr. E. H. Fountain, I manager of the 1- Automatic Franking M tichine Company, d asked for an iucreat h from 20 per ,t cent, to 40 per cent, or^ imported frankiiig machines. ,. Ho s» 6d that, his company was. at present,.j(being undersold by the British in- foortations.' The New Zealand machii: fc was a wonderful machine and Jbetter than tho ~ British article. .It fcould do almost a anything in the worl J. [c /Professor Murphy: ,Jlt can do everyy thing but pay. its'w: iy.