TARIFF ECONOMICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19748, 22 September 1927, Page 14

TARIFF ECONOMICS.

THE FARMERS' VIEWPOINT.

CAPTAIN COLBECK'S ADDRESS. EXPERIENCE IN AMERICA. Tho doctrine that the primary industries of the Dominion are being sacrificed on the altar of tariff protection of secondary industry was expounded by Captain F. Colbeck, in an address on "Protection from the Farmers' Standpoint," at the University College last evening, under the auspices of the Economic Society of Australia and NewZealand. The somewhat meagre audience, presided over by Mr. A. G. Lunn, president of the Chamber of Commerce, comprised a predominance of farmers. Captain Colbeck said New Zealand was bountifully endowed by Nature to supply foodstuffs to England, and England to supply manufactures to us, but there were" those who sought to foster by tariff walls, as had been done in America and Australia, secondary industry at the expense of primary production. In America that had made the exporting farmer "as dead as Caesar." It had been found that when the United States had a surplus of primary produce the cost of production had grown so high under protection that competition in the world market was impossible. Australia had been drifting the same way, and the Paterson v scheme of artificially inflating butter export prices had been evolved to avert disaster. The New Zealand farmer, although he had not yet reached that stage, was able to make ends meet only by making his wife • and children slave "The farmer is called greedy, but he is asked to sell his goods in New Zealand at world parity, and to buy Dmoinion made goods at a premium. He is called lots of things," said the speaker, "but all he asks is that everyone should start from scratch and that he should be allowed to buy from the market to which he sells." Primary industry was being ruined by paying tribute to support unsuccessful secondary industries. He declared the lowest wages in New Zealand were paid by some secondary industries, such as bootmaking and tailoring, and observed, "one might ask, in the words of the Psalmist, 'How long, 0 Lord, how long ?' " A protracted discussion, characterised chiefly by a generous airing of the farmers woes, followed.

Professor H. Belshaw denied the tariff was a major cause of the farmers' complaint, and Dr. E. P. Neale pointed out that in spite of a tariff over many years, primary industry had had its periods of prosperity and had not. retrograded as one would believe from Captain Colbeck's argument.

The tedium of debate was relieved when Captain Colbeck said he received only 2d per lb. more for butter-fat last year than in 1914. "It is an increase, anyhow," said someone, amid laughter. The meeting concluded on a note of optimism when Mr. Lunn declared the farmers were rising out of the trough of adversity and mounting the crest of the wave of prosperity.