The Evening Star FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1926. MOTOR CAR WAR.

Evening Star, Issue 19351, 10 September 1926, Page 6

The Evening Star FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1926. MOTOR CAR WAR.

Ox paper the recent changes in the Customs tariff on motor cars should accomplish the Government’s avowed aim in instituting them. But it is quite evident that a big effort is impending to defeat that aim. Tho Motor Traders’ Association is sitting in conference in Invercargill, and yesterday a resolution was carried disapproving of the new Customs duties and prophesying that they will bo entirely ineffective in accomplishing their avowed object—i.o., increasing local body building and encouraging tho importation of English cars. Circumstances impel the comment that tho wish is father to tho thought. It is a humiliating fact that a body of Now’ Zealand traders, claiming to represent 90 per cent, of their avocation in the dominion, should take up an attitude of hostility to a local industry and to Empire trade. This attitude is prima facie evidence of the grip which the American car manufacturers have of Now Zealand. Tho views expressed and the decisions come to at tho Invercargill Conference must be regarded as second-hand, their origin being the United States. Peaceful penetration of our dominion has gone on for so long, and, has been so successful, that when it is at length challenged its docile instruments hug their chains and deprecate the idea of release from what is understood to bo to-day a fairly oppressive thraldom.

The resolution is undoubtedly a challenge to the Government to fight the matter out to the bitter end. As to the body-building industry, the issue is whether 'it shall develop into a great and prosperous concern and a Big employer of labor, or snail roverfc to the dimensions of a more repair shop. A casual reading of the new Customs tariff, which means the addition of about £l7 10s to every £IOO of the cost of a complete American car, would at first sight suggest the former development as likely, even inevitable.' But what is a body builder to do if he cannot get a chassis to build on? In a letter addressed to us, which we construe as auxiliary to the propaganda now being disseminated from the Invercargill conference, the complaint has boon made that the body builders do not turn out their work in reasonable time or at reasonable prices or give tbe public what they want. The writer alleges that motor importers who have contracted locally for bodies within a certain time are kept waiting for them, and their business. has so suffered thereby that they now hesitate to place such orders. There is another side to it. A body builder receives an order from a prospective car user, and has had repeated delays in getting delivery of a chassis. This reluctance on the part of the importer to supply has become so pronounced since the announcement of the new duties that those who have been looking ahead see the possibility of a boycott of the body builder by the American manufacturer and his agent when the builder seeks a chassis. For this reason we regret that the Government did not do as Australia did when it first tackled a similar problem, and allow the importation of only one complete car to a stated number of chassis. Then there is the question of the price of the locaßy-bnllt body. In the first place the evidence is incontrovertible that the importers have so loaded the price of the chassis as compared with the complete car as to make the American Body appear to the customer far cheaper than it really is, and the New Zealand body far dearer than it really is. The equivalent of a straightout refusal to supply a chassis would be a pursuance of that policy until prices quoted for chassis and complete car are identical. Another point in regard to prices of local bodies is that hitherto the builders of them have not had the opportunity to reduce costs by mass production. It is this opportu nity which they are seeking, and which the agents have always sought to prevent their getting. In view of these facts it is nothing short of ridiculous for importers to complain of the prices, for in a measure they themselves are responsible. However, it is understood that the main facts of the whole question are known to the Government, and that the Government is quite aware of the tactics to be employed to defeat its legislation, and has accordingly made its own plan of campaign. The protests of the Invercargill Conference are nominally addressed to the Government. In reality they are addressed to the public, and it is to be hoped that the public will assess them at their real worth and back up the Government by helping to make the new tariff operative in the way tho Government designed. And in order to do that the public will alto nave to discard that workecl-out Rush that clio British car is far less suitable to dominion conditions than tho American car.