TARIFF PROBLEM

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 17 May 1928, Page 9

TARIFF PROBLEM

PROTECTION SYSTEM. TENDENCY TO ABUSE IT. SOME OF THE CONSEQUENCES. (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH—COPYRIGHT.) (AUSTRALIAN PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Received 12.25 p.m. to-dav. GENEVA, May 16. Mr. Layton, editor of the “Economist,” in a very able address before the Economic Commission, began by frankly declaring himself a: fi;ee trader. He directed the attention of the conference to what he termed a very striking and bold report by the Australian Tariff Board in 1927, especially to passages .stating that there was a. mischievous tendency to abuse the protective system, the result of which was seen in the increased cost prices, cost of living and wages. There was a tendency on the part of industry to shelter itself slothfully behind Customs harriers; that producers of raw agricultural materials' were now asking for increased protection, resulting in a lower output and the survival of obsolute methods of cultivation. Mr. Layton commended the report to the earnest consideration of the conference, emphasising that it was corn oiled by a body responsible for one of the highest tariffs in the world.