IMPORT RESTRICTIONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 March 1939, Page 5

IMPORT RESTRICTIONS

WILL THEY BE ABOLISHED? | PER PRESS ASSOCIATION. I NEW PLYMOUTH, March 9. Though no indications have been given by the Government, that there is any possibility of tin* restraint on overseas buying being relaxed, a letter received a.t New Plymouth to-day conveys a suggestion that abolition of import restrictions has been discussed in London. The letter, which is from the principal of a large New Plymouth firm’s London buyers, states: “From a very reliable source-, an opinion has been expressed to us that, the import licensing restrictions will have become a. thing of the past inside of six months. The writer is head of a large exporting firm with business connections in all parts of the world, and is regarded as being intimately in touch with commerce, finance, and British politics. MINISTERIAL COMMENTS WELLINGTON, March 10. “It. is not likely that there will be any change whatever in the present, procedure, until the certainty of stealing being available at. all times is achieved," said Mr. Nash, when his attention was called to the New Plymouth report that a firm of London buyers had informed their New Zealand clients that, the import, restrictions would be a thing of the past, in six months. The Minister said that, if New Zealand manufacturers were to expand their businesses, they must have security, and the position of our manufacturers would always be safeguaided.

Comment made by Mr. Savage, on the same subject, was to the effect that, there was no justification whatever for the London statement. No one could say what would happen in six or twelve months’ time, and he was not going to attempt to say. “1 have said from the very beginning, that our methods may change from time to time, with changing conditions, but our objective will never alter. We have t. osafeguard New Zealand industry.” he added. .

MOTOR-CAR SUPPLIES. DUNEDIN, March 9. Although most of the motor firms in Dunedin do not appear to be having any difficulty so far in securing supplies of new cars under the import restritcionsfi one firm of direct importers of British cars has been severely embarrassed by the control plan. The manager of the firm told a reporter to-day that he was cut off with the number of cars he had on order when the restrictions were announced on December 5 last, and 31though an appeal had been sent forward to the Minister for Customs (Mi Nash), no variation of the original decision had so far been made. , The whole of the material and labour employed in the manufacture of the cars was English, the importei said, yet that line appeared to have been restricted by the Customs Department to an appreciably greater extent than others which were not wholly British in origin. Consequently he now had on hand about six weeks’ supply of cars to last until the end of June. Similar difficulties were being experienced by importers of that line of cars in other centres, so that there was little likelihood of his being able to obtain supplies from elsewhere in New Zealand. He said that for the last two years plants for the assembly of these cars in New Zealand had been running at Auckland. Wellington, and Christchurch, but since the drastic restriction experienced applied to completely knocked down units, as well as to asesmbled cars, it was difficult to see how these plants would be able to cairy on unless some relaxation of the restriction was granted.