A MINISTER'S DIFFICULT PROBLEM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2785, 31 July 1907, Page 18

A MINISTER'S DIFFICULT PROBLEM.

yARIOUS CONFLICTING INTERESTS. (Fbou Ottr Own Cobjusspoxdeht.) WELLINGTON, July 22. The difficulty of framing a tariff, that . would give universal satisfaction was re- ' ferred to by tJie Minister of Customs (Hon. J. A. Millar) in replying to the Trades and Labour Conference deputation this evening. : Where there were 700 or 800 different things , to deal- with, and where one man's raw material became another man's manufac- j turfed product, it was very difficult to know , exactly what to do. Every man wanted ; what he imported to come in free and to j ' have the' highest possible duty placed on goods that he manufactured himself. He , .bad, he went on to say, tried as far as jos- . sible to assist local industry, but New . Zealand was an agricultural country, and it • was only possible to give a moderate and . reasonable assistance to protect local indus- ' •tries. They could not get protection in the real sense of the word. Speaking of j the duty proposed to be placed on certain ; clesse of shoes (a certain amount per pair j instead of an ad valorem duty), he eaid I the objective was as far as possible to do ' away with goods made by sweated labour, j Take, for instance, he said, shoes which j were quoted at Is 9d per pair f.o.b. Lon- ' don. If these were not the product of sweated labour he did not know what was. He did not think that the people wanted an article of this kind to come into the country. "' We are going," he said, "to do away with, all the shoddy stuff imported here and on which large profit* are made, and to bring a better olass of goods into the country as well as to protect our local industries." He did not think the cost of the goods would be any greater, -but if the people did have to pay an increase of «■ shilling a. pair, they would have " a better article.