PARLIAMENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 252, 21 September 1934, Page 7

PARLIAMENT

TO-DAY’S SITTING. TARIFF DEBATE RESUMED. LOWER DUTY ON TINWARE. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Sept. 21. The House of Representatives met at 10.30 a.m. The Church Property Trust (Canterbury) Amendment Bill was read the third time and passed. Consideration of the schedules to the Customs Acts Amendment Bill was resumed. Dealing with the reduction in the tinware duty, Mr M. J. Savage said a considerable industry had been built up in the Dominion. It was right up-to-date. If the lowering of the duty meant that more tinware was to be imported, the local industry would be affected and people thrown out of work. Mr A. S. Richards said the industry had been developed side by side with the dairy industry for the past forty years. It wa s only in recent years that Britain had come into the market and made cream cans. A reduction would mean about threepence a year to the dairy farmer. Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates said.the industry was a big one and was efficient in all departments. His am? was to give the country the cheapest possible service. The industry had been built up under a tariff of 25 per cent. The making of milk and cream cans was only a small part of that industry. He contended that the reduction was reasonable and might mean more efficiency, as it left a little more room for competition. The manufacturers had now received practically what they asked for compared with the earlier recommendation. The item was passed. The removal of the 20 per cent, duty on axles, axle arms, bogies and trucks for railway or tramway vehicles was referred to by Mr Savage, who said a great amount of expensive machinery had been brought to the Dominion to make those articles. The Minister knew what machinery was in the railway workshops and now apparently goods were to come in from outside. ' Mr Coates said Mr Savage was under a misapprehension. The only duty on bogies and trucks had been 20 per cent., and none of them had been imported, as the railway workshops made all that were required. The item was passed. COMPLIMENT FROM LABOUR. Mr W. Nash complimented the Government on the assistance given the motor industry in New Zealand by reducing the duty on completely knocked Sown motor vehicles.