LOWER TARIFFS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21514, 10 June 1933, Page 11

LOWER TARIFFS

CLAIMS BY IMPORTERS

evidence to commission

excessive landing costs

SOME BRITISH-MADE GOODS

[by telegraph— own correspondent] WELLINGTON. Friday Further representations by importers for reductions in customs duties were made before the Tariff Commission todav. Dr. G. Craig, Comptroller of Customs. presided, and tho other members were Professor B. E. Murphy, Mr. G. A. Pascoc and Mr. J. B. Gow. Mr. Leslie William Woolley, managing director of L. W. Woolley and Company, Limited, made a plea for a re- / duction of duty on dictaphones and equipment. He said dictaphones were ' made only in America and had to bear the duty imposed on American gramophones. He also sought a reduction in the tariff on load-o-meters, which were made solely in America, and were used for weighing heavy vehicles. In answer to a question by Mr. Gow, jtfr. Woolley said a dictaphone would not record a musical performance. A gramophone was a much more elaborate instrument. In Australia, dictaphones and appliances were classed as dictating equipment. There were about 1000 machines in use in New Zealand to-day, but the tariff was killing importation. Load-o-meters were used only by tho controllers of public highways. TJpto now they had been treated as weighing machines. About 26 meters had been Bold in the last five years. / Glue and Gelatine

Paul Dolbv Trickett, representing P. D. /Trickett and Company, contended that the landing costs of glue and gelatine imported from England were excessive and detrimental to the community, in that the protection afforded to the local product vras too high. With the high rate of exchange, it was costintr 100 per cent to land English glue, and even with the exchange rate at mr the protection to the local ma mifacturer amounted to 70 per cent. Manufacturing printers considered that local glue was not suitable and was loading their costs unduly. Air A. E. Mander, representing the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation, asked if the New Zealand product was inferior in all cases. , Mr Trickett said that bookbinders, for example, had stated that local glue was' unsuitable for their purposes. Mr. Mander intimated to the commission that there was to be an objection to the application and also a request for a subdivision of the item. An application for the reduction of dutv on British-made electric clocks was made bv James Rose Pay, representing W. "Littlejohn and Company, .Ltd. At one time electric clocks were made onlv in America, but there was now a thriving English industry, from which the output was 3,500,000 clocks a year. These clocks did not. compete with any New Zealand industry. Duty on Cameras

4. plea for the revision of the duty on , cameras was made bv Alexander Beauchamp, managing director ot Kodak, Limited. Mr. Beauchamp contended that the present duty was exr cessive and said that if a reduction was made, sales would increase. He had no objection to the duty on photographio lines remaining, but .unless the duty on cameras was lowered, sales would tall further still. . Professor Murphy: Do you say that if cameras were admitted free, the loss in customs would be made up by the increased sale of sundries? Witness: I would go so far as that. James Smith ]\l aeArthur, managing director- of the Dental and Medical Supplv Company, asked for the reclassification of dental chairs, which at present were under the heading of general furniture.. He contended that chairs of British manufacture should be, free. A duty of 20 per cent, plus surtax, should be imposed on the foreign article. The commission adjourned until tomorrow. DUTY ASSESSMENTS TERMS OF STERLING LOWERING OF TRUE RATE [by telegraph —own correspondent] WELLINGTON, Friday The opinion that the view put forward in some quarters that a downward alteration in the tariff should bo made on account of the recent raising of the rate of exchange was a mistaken • one, was expressed by Mr. A. Mander, general secretary of the rsew Zealand Manufacturers' Federation, in his evidence before the 1 ariff Coin misfiion. An important tact that had almost entirely overlooked was that all duties had been reduced by one- ' fifth. "Customs duties are assessed, not on the value of imports in terms of the currency in which those duties to be paid, but in terms of sterling, said Mr. Mander. "Imports valued for duty at £IOO sterling, although actually worth £125 in New Zealand currency, pay duty on only JJIOO. Hie duty is paid in New Zealand money, although assessed on the value of imports reckoned in English money. This is indeed a strange state of affairs, and it would be difficult to defend it on logical grounds. It would be almost as illogical to make a 20 per rent duty payable (in New Zealand pounds) 011 the value of imports reckoned in dollars. "With imports valued for duty purposes at £IOO English money, and subject to 20 per cent duty payable in New Zealand money, the true rate of duty has been lowered to 16 per cent. That is, the ratio of duty to value is now 16 to 100 in English money, or 20 to 125 in New Zealand money. We cannot' reckon an ad valorem duty, taking one currency for the value of the goods and another currency for the duty to be paid." / SITTING IN AUCKLAND EARLY NEXT MONTH / From information received in Auckland yesterday, it is understood it will he at least a month before the Tariff Commission opens its Auckland sitting. The Wellington sitting is expected to take the form of a general preliminary inquiry, and is not expected to conelude before the end of June. The subsequent itinerary of the commission has not been issued, but it is expected the Auckland sitting will be held early in Julv.