Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 1931. BRITISH TARIFF.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXXII, Issue 2768, 28 August 1931, Page 4

Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 1931. BRITISH TARIFF.

THE news that Britain will have to impose taxes on foodstuffs should be the harbinger of better "times for our primary producers. The proposal to impose a ten per cent, duty on foodstuffs is diametrically opposed to the previous declaration of the free trade Labour Government of Britain, The fact that they have been compelled to bow to circumstances need not throw suspicion on the sincerity of their previous. declarations, nor expose them to jibes for their apparent desertion of their principles. They have had to change their principles in, the public interest. The imposition of these food taxes will give Britain the opportunity to extend to the Dominion the preference which they extend to her. They give her manufactured goods the benefit, of lower duties; she can reciprocate by extending the same privileges to their foodstuffs and raw products. Thus a step will have been made towards making an eaopomie unit of the Empire. Not long ago we read an illuminative account of the results of Britain’s free trade policy and of her high production costs. An educational authority in Wales built a large school, and not one single item in the construction of the school was British make; the only thing that wasn't imported was the work of the bricklayers and carpenters. It is no wonder Britain has two million unemployed.

Another thing that will help to rehabilitate the trade of the world at a fairly early date will be the sealing down or cancellation of war debts. These are really the incubus that is crushing the world. The proposal to • cancel them made by the British Government was rejected by America; but if is evident that American , opinion is changing. The United States have in their vaults hundreds of m’llions of gold; yet their economic condition is as unsatisfactory as that of other nations. To restore the trade of the world a free exchange of commodities is essential; and that can only be obtained by the removal of the restrictions which since the war have cramped and checked it. The clouds that have hung over our primary producers and consequently over the whole community show definite signs of clearing.