EFFECT OF PREFERENTIAL DUTIES

Otago Witness, Volume 14, Issue 2648, 14 December 1904, Page 16

EFFECT OF PREFERENTIAL DUTIES

BRITISH BUSINESS METHODS.

£Fnqit Ova. Own Cobeespondent.) -, LONDON, October 21.

This morning I had a long and interesting conversation with Mr William. Elmer, who came to the -Mother Country recently to represent- the New Zealand firm of Messrs Oharles Begg and -Co. With some of Mr

Elmer's personal experiences and plans I

iiave dealt in another column, but - from a few remarks he*let fall at the outset

of our chat it appeared to me that he

" could, if he- would, thfow a good deal of light on various matters of prominent commercial interest. So, like Oliver Twist, I "asked for more!" ■ ' jt i "As I have already informed you, ■aid Mr Elmer, " I have come Home to. establish a London for Messrs- Begg. Its business will consist chiefly in procuring and forwarding to the firm in New' Zealand pianofortes ijid -other musical instruments. •We find that this business can be performed more efficiently and economically by having _ head office in London than by means of eeveral detached agencies. I have made a beginning by sending out to New Zealand 38 British pianos in a single shipment, and I hope to forward fully 400 yearly." Will the new preferential duties affect your plans at all? - " Certainly," replied Mr -Elmer, " m this 'direction — that it will lead to our importing a vastly .greater .proportion of Britishmade instruments. The effect of the new tariff has already become noticeable. You see, under the former tariff, the duty "was nominally 20 per cent, all round, which meant 22£ per cent, at New Zealand values. | Under the new preferential tariff British instruments will still be 22& per cent., but the additional 10 per cent, nominally on foreign instruments will practically bring up their duty to 33.3 per cent., which, of course, is~~a very substantial handicap." How do you anticipate the preferential arrangement will influence tie musical " instrument trade generally? "In two ways, at anyrate," answered Mr ' Elmer. "Naturally, it will verj considerably reduce the importation into New Zealand of German and other foreign-made in. etruments, and will -cause a proportionate increase in the demand for instruments of British make. • But it will have another effect of a wholly beneficial nature. The advantage given to British" manufacturers will enable us to import a piano of excellent quality, but of much cheaper construction, which we can sell readily in New Zealand at £40, or even Jess. By cheapening |he article, the demand will be stimulated, knd this will enable us, through the mcreased demand, to sell at a lower price - than we could were the demand more restricted. The lower prices will bring very good pianos within reach of people of Small means living in the colony, and so We anticipate a large sale, while, by our new trrangements, the proportionate working )xpenses will be lessened." Ja this particular cage, then, you arM able,

of your own knowledge, to say that the pre* ferehtial duty has distinctly benefited British trade?

"Yes," said Mr Elmer. "Of that there can be no doubt. But, of course, we are only on the threshold of the new system as yet; its full effects will take time to develop." Have you found much difficulty in dealing with the ' British manufacturers — I mean, do they raise any objection to providing what, in your opinion, colonial buyers desire ? "To some extent, doubtless, this is so," answered Mr Elmer. "Indeed, we are having a good deal of trouble already as regards the new invoices required under the preferential tariff. The act requires that the invoices must bear a written certificate of the origin of the goods, in order that the preferential remission may be claimed. Some of the British makers have printed certificates to this effect, and these they persist in using, notwithstanding it being pointed out to them over and over again that the act requires a specially-written certificate with each invoice. That is causing a good deal of bather, for the advantage of the preferential tariff cannot be obtained unless the provisions of .the act are complied with, and that is what we cannot get some of the manufacturers to do. They simply will not send proper invoices, but will- persist in sending just what they choose. And so an infinity of worry is caused."

Can you suggest any way in which this might be remedied?

"'Well," said Mr Elmer, " I certainly do think that the New Zealand Government might instruct the Agent-general more fully as to making known what are really the. requirements of the new act. It clearly ought to be among the functions of the New Zealand Agency-general to make such matters quite clear in the Mother Country in order that the British manufacturers might understand the advantages they gain under the act, and so great annoyance and trouble both to exporters and importers might be averted. As it is, nobody seems to know anything very definite about the matter, and all the information has to b& given privately, as it were, by New Zealand buyers, with the result that as British traders arei so excessively conservative and difficult to move out of their regular groove we cannot get them to comply with tho requirements of the law, so both we and they are involved in almost continual bother."

Do you find any trouble on this side in any other respects?

" Only the old oft-mentioned trouble that the British makers want to supply merely what they themselves choose to make, and not necessarily what the colonial buyer wishes to hare. That is a point on which it is mo3t difficult to arrive at a clear understanding. The British manufacturer is firmly possessed with the idea that what he makes mu&t, of necessity, be the best and) most suitable for everybody, and 1 he resents being called upon to change or modify his methods in any respect. On the other hand, the colonial customers declines to be dictated to by the manufacturer, and insists on having what he wants. If the British manufacturer will not supply this, which is not seldom the case, the colonial customer knows that he has only to hold be

his finger and he will immediately get exactly what he wants from either Germany or America. Of course, under the new tariff he will have to pay more for going abroad, and in this direction therefore the preferential tariff should greatly benefit British trade. But, on the other hand, if the British manufacturer will not rise to

the occasion, and will not study th& wants and the whims of his customers, then, naturally, much of the benefit will be lost through bis own short-sightedness. Still, I am. bound to say I see symptoms of a 1 good deal of awakening in this respect, and I am in hopes that by degrees it will be recognised in this country that if Britain is to keep her trade her 'manufacturers must be content to rise to the occasion and go with the times. ! "Now," continued" Mr Elmer. " th& Germans have already spotted this weak* point in Biitish methods. -They have lost no time in finding out what we want in. tEe colony, and they are prepared to supply i it at prioes which may run British rates j very cross, oven allowing for the difference in tariff. And at the same time that the j German makers are thus straining every nerve to meet us at all points some British j manufacturers are raising all sorts of difficulties. And some of these, difficulties seem very tiresome and silly. For instance, we j often cannot get the British people to pack • the goods securely. The consequence- is ! there is an unduly large proportion of '■ breakages. When I compl.iined about this I always got the answer : ' The goods were • packed in our ordinary way; we have always i packed the goods in the same way for

many years past, and we do not se© why that should not be good enough."

" Of course, my answer was that we were not concerned in what they had done in past times; what we wanted was to have our goods safely packed now, and to receive fchem in proper order at the present day. But I am not at all sure that I convinced them of the necessity, although, probably, they will try to mend their ways for the sake of keeping our custom. This, however, is one of the ways in which dealing v.'ith British manufacturers is so unsatisfactory, whereas their foreign competitors make no difficulties, and give no trouble at all. The fact is the British traders seem as if they could not become used to colonial ways, or bring themselves to change their owii methods so as to meet colonial requirements. One can only hope that they will learn this in time.

" There is one little matter," said Mr Elmer in conclusion, "which I may perhaps mention, as it redounds to the credit of the colony. I have brought Home a number of our illustrated catalogues, which, as you will see. were produced at the Otago Daily Times Office, Dunedin. 1 should like you to notice particularly the way in which the illustrations are done, because I maj- say that I have shown these catalogues to a number of the leading people in our trade in this country, and they have declared themselves simply astounded, both that a New Zealand firm should be able to go in for such a splendid catalogue, and that it should be feasible fco have it turned out in such, admirable style from a colonial printing office. Those who understood such matters appeared to derive a much more forcible idea of New Zealand's progress than they had gathered in any other way, for they admitted tbat nothing better, and very little equal to that work, could be found even in the Mother Country. Another thing, too, which seemed to surprise them was .to learn from me that I had established a cable oode of 2000 words, specially arranged, between our London and Dunedin offices — worked through Reuter's Agency, — by means of which I can do all my business with headquarters direct, instead of being obliged to perform it in the oldfashioned way by post. By taking this course I am able to save practically the whole difference of time between that which it takes a letter to reach New Zealand and that in which a cable message can be delivered. These various things seemed considerably to surprise and almost startle many people on ' this side,' most of whom I found still under the impression that New Zealand was a small island just off the Australian coast, and oocupying the same relation to Australia as the Isle of Wight does to England. Of course, I denied this earnestly, and tried my bast to convince th-em of their error, but I am not at all sure that I succeeded !"

The Clutha Leader states that the Pomahaka Downs Sohool is still closed for want <*f a teacher.

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