PREFERENCE TARIFF.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 17 April 1925, Page 7

PREFERENCE TARIFF.

BRITAIN AND DOMINIONS. IMPOSSIBLE PROPOSAL. DR. CHAPPLE’S.REASONS. BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. Received Anril 17, 11.30 a.m. 'SYDNEY, April 17. Dr. Chappie proceeds to New' Zealand bv the Maheno to-day. ‘Referring to tariff preference, Dv. Chappie says: “Your people here fail to realise the strong and unalterablefeeling in the British Government that any tax that would raise the cost of living, which is the one problem of the forty-five million people, a great many of whom have limited incomes. For. them and for the professional people the prospect that ever staggers is that the cost of living should be raised without any increase in the weekly budget. When a Dominion co.me s with a demand that means that the British Government should tax its people, it, only invites the ilhvill of the whole British nation. A preferential tariff based upon food products between Britain and the Dominions, upon-which; she is so dependent for supplies, is absolutely impossible. If the Baldwin Government was to pass a food products tax for the purpose of giving preference to the Dominions, it would create so much ilhvill in Britain that at next election the Government would he defeated and the incoming Government 7 would repeal the tax. This, in turn, would create much Dominion illwill. A discussion oh preference is a disruptive agitation, and there is no less danger of disruptive effects should the Dominions now try to tax British working men than there was when Britain lost the American, colonies through trying to tax them. Facilities for marketing at Home and giving more Britons access to your goods, better handling, cheaper storage and insurance, more prompt and larger cash advances on produce sent Home, cheaper rate of interest on money advanced, in addition to the elimination of quite a number of unnecessary middlemen, should be the, policy, and one along these lines would give you such advantages that would l>e far better for your interests than any preferential tariff.”