THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1907. THE GOVERNMENT AND THE TARIFF.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14001, 6 September 1907, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1907. THE GOVERNMENT AND THE TARIFF.

It is foreign to Sir Joseph Ward's nature to offer exhibitions of peevishness! such as that to which the House was treated on Wednesday night after the defeat of the Government. Nor does there seem, on the surface,' to have been any great provocation for ' it. The duty of C per cent, ad valorem on engines and machines for mining purposes is, we may readily admit, not one of the most objcctionablei features of the tariff. Though the Prime Minister spoke of it as one of the duties that are designed to assist local industries, it is'very' doubtful whether it is of any real value for such a purpose.- On the other hand, it is not an impost of a kind

which can reasonably ba bold to penalise unduly those who are engaged ira the mining industry. The principle upon which the Government has apparently acted in the preparation of its tariff is to exact from- every industry a. contribution towards the revenue of the colony through indirect taxation, and it would be difficult to argue that the proposed duty upon engines and machines for mining purposes would subject the. industry concerned to any oppressive form of taxation. The conviction must, indeed, be forced upon everyone who looks closely into the matter that the heat which was engendered over the result of the division upon the motion to place these goods upon the fres list was not warranted by the extent of the interests affected. The duty is, as a matter of fact, an old one, and it lias not in tlie past been proved to have been specially burdensome to the mining industry. Last year, for example, it yielded £382 only, the total value of the imports to which it was applied being £7639. At the same time, mining machinery, apart from dredging machinery, was imported during the year to the value of £40,530, upon which no duty was imposed. In the circumstances it is clear that the mining industry has, to say the least, not been singled out] for severe

ta'a-t-ment. Viewed in another aspect, the. revenue which has been derived from tho duty upon mining machinery has been,so inconsiderable as to be almost negligible, While it amounted last year, as we have shown, \to £382, Sir Joseph Ward himself does not'estimate that it would exceed £1000 tliis year. Even if ifc were the case, as the Primei Minister alleged, that a compact had been, entered into between the Opposition and a number of Ministerialists! to secure the removal of certain duties affecting the mining and dairying industries, and if, as a consequence, boilers for dairying purposes were put on the free list, the total amount of the sacrifice that would be demanded from'the colony in its revenue would, upon Sir Joseph Ward's own showing, bo about. £1200 per annum. And, though the Government must be credited with having minutely considered its tariff proposals in respect of the effect their adoption would have .upoli the colony's revenues, of which the'maintenance on a. sound basis is necessarily a consideration of paramount importance, it is not to be imagined that the Colonial Treasurer's finance will be dislocated by the abolition of duties, involving a total ;sum of £1200 at the outside, when the revenue estimated to be produced during the year by Customs taxation is nearly three, millions sterling.Irrespective of this, Sir Joseph Ward cannot be sa'id to have treated members very justly on Wednesday night. He complained rather bitterly that the Government had been put in. an unfair position and been exposed to- an affront through l the temporary defection of a. number of its supporters, including two exMinisters, and in effect lie threatened the House that the Tariff Bill might be' withdrawn unless the proposals contained in it were accepted. This is very wild and, we must add>, very foolish declamation. If til's implication that was contained in what Sir Joseph Ward said were pushed to its logical conclusion it would simply mean: this, that the Government was pot prepared to submit to any alteration whicli the members might, against its mil, desire to make in tire tariff, and that, rather than accept any amendment, it would abandon altogether the task of revising the duties of Customs. But, if this were, viewed as a reasonable attitude for the Government to adopt, wo should be compelled to hold that the time devoted by the House to the consideration of the Bill is absolutely wasted. An excessive demand is made upon our credulity, however, when we are asked to believe that the wisdom of Parliament in regard to such an intricate matter as the preparation and adjustment of a tariff is centred in the Government. Indeed,- the action- which lias been taken this session by the Government in- respect to the tariff represented.- the most striking confession of its own fallibility. It brought down an elaborate scries of resolutions on the 16th July, providing for the introduction of a new scale of .Custom's duties in substitution for those previously in force. But, after this new scale had been tentatively in operation for over five weeks, tlie Minister of Customs submitted amended proposals on the 23rd August, involving substantial alterations in the tariff that was presented along with the Financial Statement. To suggest that the House should surrender completely the duty of deciding the terms of a tariff to a Government which had so 1 clearly acknowledged its inability to frame a scale of duties and a list of exemptions suited to the requirements Of the country would be to advance a quite untenable proposition. The House has its undoubted rights—rights which are not confined to the Ministry and the Opposition, but extend, as Mr Rosshas ventured to affirm, even to Government supporters, although 1 many of these,- from long-continued neglect to insist upon them, may almost have forgotten that they ever possessed them,