WOOLLEN GOODS TARIFF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21378, 30 December 1932, Page 11

WOOLLEN GOODS TARIFF

| Sir, —The Canterbury Manufacturers' | -Association's statement implies that, given ® 20 per cent increase in tariff on certain | classes of woollen goods, the industry | could employ another thousand workers. | That, 'may be possible, but the general, 3 history of such policies is' very discourag- | sng. In "Tariffs: The Case Examined," 5 bv Sir William Beveridgc and a committee i of economists, the point is thus referred I to:—"lndustiies which could show them- | selves to be in the delicately balanced | position required by the argument must | always be few and far between. They must | he ripe for largo-scale production, but | .with none of the manufacturers in them | prepared t° undertake it. The argument I assumes something that looks perilously 1 v 6 a< *k °f initiative on the part of the I home manufacturer." That seems to about I fit the local case. Even if it does not, one I 'would hardly, think the people of this | country are still agreeable to further exI periment.4 of a nature which have falsified I prophecies hitherto. As to employment, 1 there are more persons employed in the | Jnjporting business, directly ami indirectly, 1 n * n /manufacturing for secondary inI wastries, and if the costs were reduced by | . reduction of tariffs and certain other || Measures, it is morally certain that even ;| kecondary industries suited to our condi- | ~9 ns would benefit greatly. To grant furSther protection to one industry now would Jnake it difficult to refuse similar demands from others. Sir Charles Tupper. one of he fathers of Canadian protection, declared that within 15 years the then infant industries of Canada would need no Over 50 years have passed and in the 53rd year these "infants" have had be rescued bv an emergency tariff, i-these infants are everlastingly in arms and we would do well not to coddle them, . thfl y will never grow up. Mr. C'oates' ®t ltude is meeting with the general endorsement of enlightened consumers, ilinuera. Phil Hawke.