TARIFF PROTECTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20501, 31 August 1928, Page 12

TARIFF PROTECTION.

NEED OF THE HOMELAND. KEEN COMPETITION WITH , FOREIGNERS. (Special to'Daily Times.) WELLINGTON. August 30. “ What England needs to ..put her jropeiiy on her feet again is tariff protection,” declared Mr G. A. Laughton, adding that he thought she would get it next year. Frectrade had icon the country’s policy for 30 years too long. It had been all very well when England was practically the only manufacturing country, but that was not the case now. and the days of Freetrade were over. Mr Laughton is the managing director of a large manufacturing firm in Birin inghatn. Some trades at Home, belaid, were doing well, wnile others were showing signs of improvement. He was inclined, he said, to share in the optimism expressed by others who had recently come to New Zealand from England rather than in the pessimism which was manifested in some quarters. The strike; had been a good lesson to labour, for the British working man was really solid and eager to do his part in pulling things through, but the trouble was that England had had her home trade jwept from under her feet because her manufacturers wore forced to sell their goods at prices which foreigners were willing to take for their surplus goods. The dumping of foreign surplus goods on the English market robbed the local manufacturers of the chance to make a fair profit Without that it was impossible for t> ai to provide new plant or modern factories. Neither did industry attract capital when there was no chance of a reasonable return. It was Impossible for any country to .be really prosperous on expbrt trade alone. It was too uncertain. A sound home trade was necessary as a basis, but this could not be acquired without Protection. For every £1 worth of manufactured goods exported England imported 10s worth of manufactured goods—goods, which she herself might to a large extent be making. The time -would come when sip could not afford to pay for her huge importations of raw materials, food, and manufactured ' goods, and it would become necessary to. stop the importation of one of these-three items. Undoubtedly the first to be stopped would be the importation of manufactured goods. Last year England purchased from America some worth of goods, which comprised raw materials, food, and manufactured goods, the latter representing above £70,000,000. In return England shipped to America about £60,000,000 worth of goods of all types. Added to that was the yearly payment of millions as war debts, thus creating a state of affairs which could not continue indefinitely, - although the balance was kept to some extent perhaps by the inflow of American capital into England. The Safeguarding of Industries Act, declared Mr Laughton, was too costly and complcated to work efficiently. The only remedy lay in Protection. “ When I first stepped asnore in Australia,” Mr Laughton went on to say, “ 1 entered a telephone box, and the first thing I noticed was that the instrument was not made either ’n England or in Australia. In your Wellington shop windows I notice too many things made in America or in Germany, and my discoveries have disappointed me somewhat. Not that I blame cither country, but it is obvious that England must supply her own natural markets with her goods if her manufactures are to thrive. As a matter jf fact, you in New Zealand do more to encourage, by meaus of a tariff, the manufacture of English goods than does the Government at Home, and this will be the case until Protection comes.” English nianufacturers, Mr Laughton added, were beginning to study the colonial markets, but all of them were not so alive or up to date as they should be. English manmacturers could and would produce the - goods if given the chance and encouragement.