TARIFF QUESTIONS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 118, 20 April 1931, Page 8

TARIFF QUESTIONS

MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN. VIEWS OF SIR JAMES PARR. WELLINGTON, April 20. Returning to New Zealand after five years in the Old Country, Sir James Parr came back yesterday morning convinced that England ay as undergoing a change of heart with regard to tariff questions. was not improbable, lie said, that within the next year or two England would turn Protectionist, with a strong bias in favour of the Dominions. “In marketing propaganda, there are still tremendous opportunities, said Sir James. “It is most important, because every additional retailer for New Zealand products that we secure is an asset .for- the farmers of this country. Indeed, I am satisfied that the cure for New Zealand’s industrial ills is to be found largely m the extension of our only market, namely, the British market, and in the adoption by the British people of a policy of protection for Dominion products as against the dumping of cheap foreign stuff into England through her free ports, which remain free in pursuance of the now generally discredited policy of free trade, a policy which puts the New Zealander and the foreigner on the same level, notwithstanding the valuable P enoes New Zealand .and Dominions are giving the Mother '-'OunThere has been in England during the past year a strong revulsion against free trade, or rather, free imports, for ..England has never, strictly speaking, had free trade, with its implication of free trad© at both ends The Conservative Party is now pledged at the next general election to a straight-out policy of protection or safeguarding, as it is called. “Even the Liberals, the historic supporters of free trade,, are H>lit on this sisue. Sir John. Simon, the best brain in the Liberal Party, Professor J. M. Keynes,ithe ablest of all postwar economists, and other important men among the Liberals have PJ*?" nounced for a tariff and the prohibition of sweated or dumped foreign goods. But even : the workers are turning against free trade. The Trades Union Congress, which met last year, representing 4.000,000 trade unionists, ; was ’most emphatic in its deniand for / a reconsideration of the whole question of tariffs and was keen to make arrangements with the Dominion countries based on mutual bargains founded on tariff principles.

IMPORTANT TO NEW ZEALAND

“I regard the tariff issue in England as all important for New Zealand and our industrial future,” Sir James continued. “Inudeed, what are our farmers going to do, harassed as they are by the competition of Europe and the Argentine, unless we can secure a sheltered or protected position for our butter cheese, meat, honey and bacon. This is what I have been working for in England. I thought that I might be useful fighting the battle of the New Zealand producer. It may rather surprise my friends here to know that elections are being won on this policy. I found that in working-class districts the issue of a tax on foreign foods received the closet attention and the feeling in favour of helping the Dominions by tariff preferences is gaming strongly every day. Of course we must ao something in return. It would be good business to divert some of the millions which we may now spend with foreign countries into British channels. this could be done wnnout hurting our own lactories in any way. Oi course .the imperial Conference was a fiasco —the politicians Killed it, and a tremendous opportunity was lost. “ihe English people are ready for a drastic cnange. JLheir position is most serious. They will soon have a Budget of £I,OUU,OuO,OOO a year in annual expenditure. The unemployed, largely as a result ol industries being oiosed down tlirough the competition of foreign dumping, are fast approaching tne ghastly total of is,uiX),UIXJ people, wno are drawing cioles and relier amounting to nearly £iUU,OOO,OOO annually. Jfcmglish industry and taxpayers cannot much longer sustain such an awful burden, it is no wonder that' the British- public is ready tor drastic fiscal changes by which they may recover their own home markets and go m for largescale production in ine manufacture of much cheaper goods than at > present. This will lead to the recovery of their foreign markets, which they are last losing, and to the extension of their Dominion markets, in which they are also going back. They cannot at present maKe their goods cheaply enough.” “WAGES, NOT DOLES.” Sir James referred to the fact that Japanese cotton goods were being sold in Bancashire itself, where 45 per cent of the operatives were out ot work, • and also that in Northampton, the boot manufacturing centre, he saw boots and shoes from Caecho-Slo-vakia hawked about the place and sold. “I have seen municipallybuilt houses in England in which there were no British building materials at all,” he said. “The bricks were brought from Belgium, the tiles from France, the timber from Russia, the doors and sashes from. Norway, and even the baths and electrical fittings from Germany. The English people are waking up to the tact that they have got to protect their own industries and keep their men at work. Paying wages is better than paying doles. if a plebiscite were laken to-morrow in England, uncomplicated by party politics, I have little doubt that protection would easily carry the day,”