REVISION OF THE CUSTOMS.

Evening Star, Issue 12749, 28 February 1906, Page 6

REVISION OF THE CUSTOMS.

[SFECCAX TO TH3 STAB.] CHRLSTCHURCH, February 28. There is a good deal of feeling hero in regard to the proposals to revise the Customs Tariff, and it is expected that the meeting called for Tbrnsday will he well attended. Mr T. E. Taylor, who is the principal organiser of the meeting, in explaining the position to a reporter, said that the meeting had been called because it seemed that the manufacturing classes in the cokmy would go to Parliament next 'session with an’ organised demand for a revision that would serve their own interrsts. The promoters of the meeting believed that unless the general public were also organised and ready to present a definite demand to Parliament they might not secure relief from some of the present excessive duties, and they might become the victim of the organisation of the manufacturers. The promoters were entirely in sympathy with th > suggestion that the Customs Tariff should be revised, in order to afford the regular and more extended employment of our own people. The general purpose of the meeting was to ascertain whether or not the public were prepared to formulate, try means of a national petition, _ a definite demand for the repeal of certain duties on articles of food and clothing, and for the reduction of the duties chi other items which could not be manufactured in New Zealand. A motion would be submitted urging that the time had arrived when all kinds of fruit, fresh and dried, should be admitted into the colony free of duty, and stating that unanswerable reasons must be given to Parliament this session to show that the prohibition of the importation of Australian grapes should bo maintained. It was not sufficient, added Mr Taylor, to say that there was a danger of introducing phylloxera, and on that ground to prohibit large numbers of people from liav’ng access to unlimited quantities of Australian grapes. It would hare to be demonstrated that phylloxera .could be conveyed from country to country in other ways except by the trunk or the root of the yin®. As a layman, he doubted if the disease could be spread by the fruit. In Australia delicious grapes ' could be bought for from Id to 2£d and 3d a pound, while the price in New Zealand placed grapes in the category of expensive luxuries, The growers of local grapes would still find a large market amongst well-to-do people for their goods, for which a much higher price could be demanded than was given for the imported article. It is understood in Christ church that correspondence is taking place between the tarmetß and leather dressers of the whole 1 colony with a view of arriving at an. agreement on points affecting the trade, so that if the Tariff is revised during the coming session united action can be taken.