AMERICA AND N.Z.

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11412, 8 January 1923, Page 6

AMERICA AND N.Z.

TARIFF &TRABE RELATIONS INTERESTING VIEW OF WELLINGTON BUSINESS MAN. WHAT IS AMERICA’S INTENTION I! “It is all very well for Mr D. E. Wilber, the American Consul-General, to say that the United States tariff is a tariff for revenue only. In my opinion, it is much too 'high for a revenue tariff,” said a well-known Wellington business man, in the course of conversation on Saturday with a “Times'’ reporter. “The truth of the matter is, it seems to me, that America is trying to discourage by every means in her power only from Now Zealand but from Canada, from Britain, indeed from the world at large. That is the only meaning that one can put upon the new tariff. “Of course, the Americans must haws our wool, in order to make up their own shortage; and the large quantity of New Zealand butter they are taking at pissent is only due to a temporary shortage of butter in the States. As soon as the American fanners produce their spring supply of butter, the demand for our butter will cease. We would like to do a bigger business with the United States, but we can’t buy ber goods if she won’t take our products in return; and that the tariff undoubtedly tends to prevent her doing. “As to' Mr Wilber's statement that the average American would rather pay taxation indirectly than have the income tax collector call upon him onoe a year for a lump sum, I should have thought that the average American would be quite wide-awake enough to see that, if be pays Customs taxes on the goods he consumes, he must pay not only the actual amount of the tax itself but also the wholesalers’ and the retailers’ profits on the takes, which may mean anything from 50 to 60, or even 100 per cent. more. “No, tariffs do not encourage trade; and if you want to do a big trade, the lower your tariffs the bettor.”