COACH AND MOTOR TRADES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3397, 23 April 1919, Page 21

COACH AND MOTOR TRADES.

WELLINGTON, April 19. The seventh annual convention of the New Zealand Coach and Motor Yehiclo Trades Industrial Association of Employers opened this morning - . The delegates were accorded a civic reception by the Mayor. The President (Mr W. J. Boon), in addressing the delegates, said that whatever opinion might be held in regard to the best method of bringing down the cost of living, it was painfully evident that the only result of Parliament's hasty nnd ill-considered action, as evidenced in the recent Arbitration Court award, had been to intensify and absurdly complicate the problem. It was impossible to imagine where the riot of wage-raising upon which the court had been launched would end; but the main result undoubtedly would be to make the cost of living problem in its total scope and in its detailed aspects more than ever formidable and difficult of solution. One thing was evident : Workers, though not on a bare subsistence., were not satisfied with their share of the products of labour. WELLINGTON, April 21.' At the Coachbuilders' Conference to-day, during a discussion on motor body building, the opinion was expressed that without some measure of standardisation the trade would be unable to cope with the demand existing for motor bodies. Resolutions were passed that this association approach the Government in the matter of tariff requirements with the request that a'duty of 20 per cent, bo levied on. the complete car, and 5 per cent, on the chassis; that a duty of 50 per cent, bo levied on the completed motor car bodies (or " knockdown " bodies).

The freight rates' on pianos are still so I high as_ to keep prices of these instruments j at a high level. Some pianos which ar- I rived recently cost £25 railage from factory

to port and freight charges to Auckland on each instrument. When to that is added 23 per cent, duty, it will easily be seen that prices must continue to rule high.