OVERDOING IT

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 6 October 1927, Page 7

OVERDOING IT

PROTECTION IN AUSTRALIA.

TARIFF BOARD’S WARNING,

A CLARION CALL TO EMPLOYERS AND LABOUR.

BY CABLE-PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. Received 1.45 p.m. to-day. CANBERRA, Oct. 6. In the annual report which the Tariff Board presented to representatives, admission is made that the imposition of increased tariffs oai certain classes of imports which are designed to- improve the position of several .important industries in the Commonwealth, merely resulted in the stagnation of these industries. In other words, the report -states, -ift iig: apparent that protection is failing to protect. The Board gives warning that there is a danger of the tariff being used to bolster up an ever-increasing cost production, irrespective of any consideration to the ever-widening gaps between the standard within the Commonwealth and the United Kingdom. Tho -disparity in wages not only affects industries using materials width are wlrollv the product of Australia, isuch as thi3 -iron and steel industries, but experience has shown that even industries using appreciable proportions of imported materials are placed at a serious- disadvantage with the products from overseas. The Board regrets being obliged to place on record its conclusion that there is in the Comm on wealth a prevailing tendency calculated to abuse the protective system by forcing the pace under disadvantageous conditions to endanger the efficiency of the- system. This tendency, it is declared, is not confined to one section, but is common to the industrial unions and -secondary and primary producers. The Board is profoundly convinced that if Australian industry is to be maintained and safeguarded, it is essential that the leaders of industrial unions should recognise the serious menace arising out of the costs of production. The i,s regarded _ by the Board a-s too critical to waste tame on trumped u-p charges of bias. . The Board calls for the serious attention of al parties, otherwise there can he nothing but disaster ahead.