MATERIAL PURCHASES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 251, 20 September 1933, Page 5

MATERIAL PURCHASES.

THE WELLINGTON STATION. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 19. Mr A. E. Mnnder, general secretary to the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation, makes the following statement concerning conditions in the specifications for the new Wellington railway station: — "We protested against the grossly unfair conditions specified for Wellington’s new railway station—namely, that imported materials should be exempt from exchange, Customs and sale's tax while competing products of our own industries are still subject to all three charges. We protested to the Minister of Finance, who replied that it was the responsibility of the Railways Board, but we have yet to learn when the Railways Board was given power to exempt imported goods from sales tax and at the same time to declare that New Zealand goods shall be subject to sales tax as usual. “If this power has been given to the board it has surely been done without Parliamentary sanction. A protest has been made. The Minister and the General Manager of Railways have both replied with platitudes and vague assurances which amount to no more than that the matter will be ‘kept steadily in view.’ What manufacturers and merchants holding stocks in New' Zealand require is not merely a vngue expression of goodwill, but an alteration of the conditions under which they are placed at so great a disadvantage in tendering.” ,