FAVOURABLY REGARDED IN DUNEDIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2785, 31 July 1907, Page 16

FAVOURABLY REGARDED IN DUNEDIN.

SOME DUNEDIN OPINIONS. The alterations in the tariff, as published on th© 17th, were responsible for considerable discussion amongst those directly interested in the city, and. with a few exceptions, they were 'favourably regarded. Mr P. R. Sargood, of Sargood, Son, and Ewen, on being approached, said: " With regard to the softgoods trade it is suggested that the proposed free list should) be as from October 31. This will necessarily prea3 hard ujx>n the trade, inasmuch as this is practically the middle months of the trade's season, and considerable disorganisation and unre6t will be occasioned if an alteration is made at any other time than the end of a period. It has generally been the custom in other .xmntries where it has been suggested to place a large number of items on the tree list which were previously dutiable to give a longer period than three months in which to - reduce stooks. The increaso in hosiery is not likely to benefit the consumer. In the absence of schedule B itis difficult to follow many other lines j mentioned which are handled by the soft- j goods trade, though why decreases have been made in reopeot of some iteme which might be. classed luxuries, and thu.s place ! «. handicap upon the industries, it is hard { to say. It will be noted that aids to ; industries such' as gas-producing plant, 1 electrical motor, and a number of the ! adjuncts of' an industry have been sub- j jeoted to -an" increase. This "surely -is not giving that assistance to local industry , iwhioh we understand to be one of the ' planke of the Government's policy. As for the boot industry, it would seem that the excessive, and in some cases prohibitive, > 'duties levied, will in no way do any good • for the industry in* this colony. As the president of the Boot Manufacturers' Asso- ' ciation has said, there is no necessity for an increased dsity, the trouble being to •upply present demands, owin^ to the ' shortage of labour. Any alteration in the present duties must, therefore, necessarily react upon the consumer, who must . have boots and shoes. The local manu- I facturers being unable to supply demands, importations must continue, with the re- ! suit of touch higher-priced goods or inferior j 'quality, while ' tho manufacturer ie still further handicapped by an increase in the \ 'duty on -certain leathers, leather aboard, j heel-plates, stiffeners, toe-plates, dextrine, ' etc. _On men's boots the duties range from $0 per cent, downwards, on 'women's, from i 65 per 'cent., and on boys' from 60 por '- cent.; while on ehoettes, 6andals, and such like a prohibitive duty of over 125 per cent, is placed. There is nothing to bo said.against this latter, as such goods aro detrimental .to the- health of the eommuaitj, but prohibition of their entry into ( the ooiony ■will not, and does not, prevent ; them from being made locally in large ( quantities, which, if done, would only t irtill further decrease the supply of .labour for the bettor class article. No doubt this expression of opinion may be modified on Betusal of the other schedulee, consequently

it is only to be taken as based upon a cursory study of the alterations."

Mr W. R. Gordon, of Neill and Co. (Ltd.), said it appeared to him that the Government seemed to have been influenced by the recommendations made by various Chambers of Commerce. " The Government," continued Mr Gordon, " has made very substantial reductions, and I think that in most oases the public will reap the full benefit of the remissions. One thing that struck me in looking over the new tariff was the advance on canned fruits. Up till now the duty on Californian tinned fruits has been 25 per cent. ; now, with the preferential duty, it will be 37£ per cent. New Zealand is quite unable at present to produce this Jass of goods. The fruit, for one thing, is not of the quality required, or of the variety. The effect of tjiis advance will be to make us look to a British colony where we can buy our fruits. Up to the present time Californian fruit has been favoured, and ne-arily all this commodity comes from San Francisco. The last season for fruit in the North Island was very poor, and in ooneequence only from 20 to 25 per cent, of our ordere were executed. Sporting men will find imported cartridges very dear. The duty up to now has been Is 6d per 100. The 'New Club,' a favourite American cartridge, will now bear 3s 9d, with the preferential duty added. No doubt it is cons.'ctered advisable to foster this trade in New Zealand, but a great many shooters who have a preference for this partiuclar cartridge will not appreciate this alteration. So far from there appearing to be any necessity of fostering the manufacture of colonial cartridges is concerned, I can only say we have never been offered a New Zealand cartridge. No doubt, however, this heavy protection will lead to something in this direction. Local industries appear to have got a very fair protection, noticeably in the case of candles, whioh have been advanced id per lb. At the same time it must be taken into account that paraffin wax has been advanced id per lb to the manufacturer. Tt just means this : that we aro going to be forced to look for our goods in British possessions, and we shall have to ca«t round to 6ee if we can buy such lines as fruits in Canada so as to get them in at 25 per cent.

Mr H. K. Wilkinson, manager for Messrs ,T. Rattray and Co.. said he judged the alterations in the tariff were mainly in the direction of cheapening the cost of living, and certainly a great amount of relief would he obtained through the proposals brought down. "It seems," continued Mr Wilkinson, "somewhat a mistake to have added to the already heavy duty on tinned fruits. I think the previous duty of 25 per cent, was ample in every sense for protecting our local industry, which for many yeara yet cannot hope to cope with the demand there is for this very favourite and convenient form of food. Tinned fruit supplies a great want when there is no other fresh fruit about. The alteration in the tea duty will accomplish what the Legislature intended to do during the last revision of the tariff. This will prevent the importation of small packages, and will, as a result no doubt, be responsible for the employment of considerable labour for packing. The reduction on sugar witt, of course, l*rpy§ a.

great boon to the wage-earners. They will reap the whole benefit of the reduction, no doubt, for sugar bears next to no profit to the trade." Mr J. Wardell. grocer, of George 6treet, considers the alterations most satisfactory to the trade. "The fact that the Government is not bringing the alterations into force for a short time is only fair," he added, "as it enables us to get rid of the duty-paid stocks in the meantime, especially as far as dried fruits and other commodities of which grocers sometimes carry heavy stocks are concerned. The alterations will benefit the consumers without a doubt — they will get the full benefit, as far as the grocery trad© is concerned at all events. Mr J. W. Henton (president of the Chamber of Commerce) expressed disappointment in the tariff. There had been no attempt at simplification. It was a tariff that bade fair to get speedily overloaded with commissioners' decisions. Taking the duty off sugar and other items of the "free breakfast table" would no doubt be a boon, but there were anomalies, as, for instance, the admittance of motor cars free whilst locomotives, which before were free, were made dutiable to the extent of 20 per cent. Surely the necessity ought to have precedence of the luxury? He regretted that the tariff had not been made more simple and easier to be understood by the various classes it affected. As to how the alterations would affect business, it was impossible to say until the j complete tariff had been issued and time had been allowed for its assimilation. A wholesale stationery manufacturer expressed the opinion that the duty of 3d a pound on handbills, programmes, playbills, etc., would probably work very well. To takeasingle line— theatrical playbills— it was notorious that they had been coming into the country practically free. Mr W. Taylor, of the firm of W. Taylor and Sons, expressed surprise that whilst the wishes of 6he working closes had been met in regard to sugar and other items of the breakfast table, something had not been done in the way of cheapening fish — an important item of diet. Most of the reductions, when analysed, amounted to very little. What, for instance, ddd a I penny on a pound of blue matter? Tho general effect would be an unsettling of business up till October 31. The fact that the duty on tobacco remained as before, notwithstanding the promise made by the ! late Mr Seddon, would be disappointing to the working classes. A Chines© merchant, Mr Euro Poy, exipressed the opinion that the advantage reaped by the consumer through the decreased cost of sugar would be more than j balanced by the disadvantage entailed j through the extra duties on boots and hosiery. The wording of the proposals was not always transparent, and a first reading wa6 open to subsequent correction, I but it certainly looked as if boots would , cost, on a rough average, something like Is per pair more. Shoe leather was a matter of at least as much importance to the worker aa was sugar. In fact, whilst the cry of a free breakfast table was an admirable one, all the gain reaped in that direction would go for naught if hosiery and boots 'were made proportionately dearer. The preference of la 6d in favour . of tobgcoo v «isered to be !g.^u/act&red s U*

New Zealand in any licensed' tobacco manufactory for manufacturing purposes only into tobacco, cigars, cigarettes, or snuff, 2ts per lb," was a move in the right direction. It would stimulate local manufacture and provide work for probably hundreds of people. THE LABOUR PARTY. A prominent and representative member of the Labour party was invited to express his opinion regarding the tariff alterations, and in reply he eaid: — "It is impossible, on 6o short a notice, to have thoroughly mastered everything contained in the Statement concerning these two very important questions, but, on reading them over, some thoughts have crossed my mind. Take the Customs first: The total net remissions are given as £254,000— or, roughly, a quarter of a. million. This seems a" large amount, but actually pans out at between 5s and 6s per annum per head of the population. To very many householders ; this small amount will never be felt, but then again in some families it will be appreciated, and, speaking from a worker's standpoint, anything which goes in the direction of removing the cost on articles which cannot be manufactured in the colony should be welcomed. Customs duties for raising revenue are not defensible, because the larger a man's family (and we ask him to have a large family) the more we tax him through this channel, no matter how poor he is. An anomaly surely. But a Customs duty to protect industries is a. different matter. You thereby provide work fpr him, and enable him to pay the extra duty. It seems that the tariff proposals, as submitted, go in this direction, but the worker's trouble is that he is not quite certain that he will get his share of j the altered tariff — in fact, he is quite certain he will not. In these days of combines, he is lucky if he is allowed to pay the same for his commodities as he did before this tariff came into force. For instance, will he get hi - candles at the same price (an extra id duty has been put on), when there are only three manufacturers in thecolonv who have at present a standard price, and refuse to compete i against one another. (By the way, per- ' haps if the price of candles does go up the extra money thus made will go in the direction of paying: better wages to the workers. We shall see.) Then there is the id off sugar. This must benefit every householder, aa all use sugar. . But, while it benefits the ordinary person, it must not be overlooked that the large manufacturing firms are the principal benefiters, but I doubt if the purchaser of these manufacturers' wares will get them any cheaper, more especially since an extra duty is put on some of the imported goods of this class. So, taken altogether, it must not be considered that the general community is going to get the full benefit of the 6s per head of remitted duty, and if it were possible at the end of 12 months to adjust ' aecounte, I fear that the benefit the ordinary toiler will get from the tariff proposals as submitted will be hardly worth considering. When the wholesale merchant or manufacturer has a little nibble, and the retailer ditto, there will be very little of the 6s left for the purchaser. I predict that one effect of the tariff proposals will be that more trusts or combines will spring HE. •?- *l»S <»te»y if the Legislature does nfit

prevent them, and, personally, I fail to see how they can effectively stop them by any act of Parliament. We have enough, of these combines already, and, if, through the altered tariff, we get anjr more, fche last state of the ordinary toiler »ill ba worse than the first. Looking at one or two of the general, items, there seems to be some absurdities. For instnace, bicycles, which are, to a large extent, used by the ordinary people, are taxed to the amount of 20 per cent. ; while motor cars, a purely wealthy-olaes article, and only used by people "who are well able to pay a duty, are admitted free. But there may be .a reason for this, .although it is hard to see it.