TARIFF RATES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 256, 26 September 1933, Page 2

TARIFF RATES

REQUESTS TO COMMISSION

Per Press Association

CHRISTCHURCH, ( Sept. 25. Before the Tariff Commission to-day Mr* Charles Howard Hewlett, manager of the . Canterbury (N.Z.) Seed Co., Ltd., grain merchants and maltsters, urged that the duty on imported malt and malting barley should be retained. The present duty was 5s per cental on British malt and Australian malt and 7s on general imports, and on malting barley to be used in the manufacture of beer or otherwise than as stock food 2s per cental on all imports. It was essential that the duty should be retained, said Mr Hewlett, otherwise dumping into the North Island breweries from Australia would occur, as the freight from Australian ports to Auckland was 35s a ton, compared with 24s 6d from Lyttelton to Auckland. Under protection the malt required in New Zealand had been made locally from barley grown in the Dominion.

New Zealand, added Mr Hewlett, could and did produce enough barley for the requirements of the maltsters and brewers of New Zealand, who expressed their willingness to pay a duty of 2s per bushel on the rare occasions when they needed to import, recognising the importance and benefits of barley growing to New Zealand and the need for the farmers to be protected against outside dumping. The production of beer, Mr Hewlett said, had fallen from 11,512,238 gallons in 1931, when the duty was lid and Is per gallon, to 8,692,857 gallons for the year ended March 31, 1933, when the duty was Is Gd. That decrease Had been reflected in the quantity of barley needed, with the result that the acreage had been smaller. “Can you state the profits made by New Zealand Breweries, Ltd.?’’ asked Professor Murphy. “If they still make a profit, then it appears that the industry can stand the duty.” Mr Hewlett said he believed that a profit had been made, but the duty had been passed on to the consumer, with a consequent decrease in trade. They were getting to the limit. Both maltsters and barley growers, witness asid, considered that no business could stand an increased taxation of over, 500 per cent, since 1914. That was excessive. No industry should be singled out for such treatment. The witness recommended some relief in that direction. Mr Samuel Harvey Maddren, secretary to Maddren Bros., and Mr Ernest Carlyle Search, accountant to the same firm, gave evidence concerning the Binder Twine Company. They claimed that continued protection was necessary and justifiable. Mr Norman John Suckling gave evidence on behalf of Robert Malcolm, Ltd., respecting cotton goods, buttons, elastics, haberdashery, wearing apparel and general drapery. Messrs Ernest W. Reed, secretary, and Francis \V. J. Belton, engineer, of the Christchurch Gas Company, spoke of the duties on ammonia, one of the by-products of gas manufacture. Air George Henry Ilolford, representing Imperial Chemical Industries, said that sulphate of ammonia was at present duty free from all sources. He asked that the new rates be British free, general 15 per cent.