UNION WORRIED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21853, 25 October 1945, Page 4

UNION WORRIED

N.Z. TYRE INDUSTRY PAYMENT OF ROYALTIES ECONOMIC ASPECTS (P.A.) WELLINGTON. Oct. 25. A letter on the decision of the Bureau of Industry to issue licenses for the manufacture of rubber tyres and tubes in New Zealand has been sent to the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, by the New Zealand Farmers' Union.

The secretary, Mr. A. P. O’Shea, said that the union had discovered that although the Bureau of Industry had power to refuse a license on th 6 ground that the issue of the license would not be in the economic interests of New Zealand, there was no provision in law for the appeal authority to take into consideration whether or not the economic interests of New Zealand would be served by the issue of licenses. For this reason the union had taken up the matter with the Prime Minister.

The letter said there was at present no method whereby the union could have brought under review or revised the decision by the Minister, which, in its opinion, was totally opposed to the economic interests of the whole Dominion.

Under the decision as it stood at present five-sixths of the _ royalties which would have to be paid by the licenses would go to the United States. This meant that payment would have to be made in dollars, at a time when the whole British Empire was in a desperate situation so far as dollar funds were concerned. State Support

The union was also apprehensive about the fact that the country was to be called upon to provide up to £400,000 per annum to support the industry. At present the country was heavily burdened with taxation and the union was of opinion that under the circumstances it was unwise to inaugurate an industry which was to go “on the dole” immediately and which would add to the burden of costs.

Also, the country was desperately short of labour and materials, particularly for housing. “It was much against the interests of the Dominion that this decision should be given effect to,” the letter continued.

“The union asked, therefore, that immediate steps be taken to amend the Industrial Efficiency Act so that an appeal which was based on the economic interests of the country could lie. The union further asked that this should be taken in hand as a matter of urgency so that power might be available before the time expired for appeals in this case to be lodged. If this were done they might avert a very grave error and the offering of a very serious affront to Great Britain.