DRASTIC CUTS MADE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26916, 30 October 1948, Page 8

DRASTIC CUTS MADE

IMPORT SCHEDULE FOR 1949 EMPHATIC PROTEST BY JEWELLERS An emphatic protest was made about the new import schedule at a meeting of the Otago and Southland Branch Council of the New Zealand Jewellers’ Association yesterday mdrning. The protest is to be sent through the New Zealand Council to the Government authorities and it claims that the jewellery trade has been singled out for particularly harsh treatment. “ Notwithstanding the fact that our exports to the United Kingdom are almost as large as they have ever been and at a time when ‘Aid to Britain ’ is most important, drastic cuts have been made in the new import schedule for 1949 for goods made in England and regularly imported to New Zealand,” the protest added. The import schedule announced was:— Amount of » licence All jewellery lines .. .. nil All silverware nil All electro-plated ware .. nil All fancy goods .. .. nil Ladies’ and men’s brushware nil Cut crystal ware, 50 per cent, of 1948 imports Chinaware, 50 per cent, of 1948 imports. “It was felt,” the protest added, ‘‘that the buying public should be made aware of these facts and that when they were unable to obtain the goods they were in the habit of buying, they would blame, not the jeweller, but the Government controlling authority.”