PREFERENCE QUESTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18996, 18 April 1925, Page 9

PREFERENCE QUESTION.

VIEWS OF DR. CHAPPLE. "LIKELY TO CAUSE ILL-WILL." A. and N.Z. SYDNEY. April 17. I Dr. W. A. Chapplo, late Liberal memi!ber for Duinfrieshire, and a former member of tho New Zealand House of Representatives, was interviewed here on the subject of preferential trade, prior to leaving by the Maheno for Now Zealand. " Your people here fail to realise the strong, unalterable feeling in tho British Government," said Dr. Chapplo, " against any tax that would raise tho cost of living. The cost of living is tho one problem of the 45,000,000 people with an enormous number of limited incomes, and for professional people tho prospect that ever staggers them is that the cost of living should be raised without an increase in the weekly budget. When the Dominions come with a demand that means that tho British Government should tax its own people, it only invites the. illwill of the whole British nation. " A preferential tariff based upon food products between Britain and tho Dominions, upon which she is so dependent for supplies, is absolutely impossible. If the Baldwin Government was to pass tho food products tax for the purpose of preference to the Dominions, it would create so much ill-will in Britain that at the next election the Government would be defeated and the incoming Government would repeal the tax. This in turn would create much Dominion ill-will, " The preference discussion is a disruptive agitation. There is no less danger of disruptive effects now should the Dominions try to tax tho British workingman than thero was when Britain lost the American colonies through trying to tax them. " Facilities for marketing at Home and giving more Britons access to your goods, better handling and cheaper storago and insurance, more prompt and larger cash advances on produce sent Home, a cheaper rate of interest on money advanced, and in addition the elimination of quite a number of unnecessary middlemen, aro wanted. A policy along these lines would givo vou such advantages that would be far better for your interests than any preferential tariff."