NEW RAILWAY STATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18194, 15 September 1933, Page 11

NEW RAILWAY STATION

TERMS OF TENDERING CORRESPONDENCE /.WITH MR. COATES (Per Pros 3 Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Correspondence with regard to the tenders for the new railway station at Wellington has been handed to the press by the Manufacturers’ Federation. The first letter, which was from Ihe federation to the acting-Premier, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, sets out certain terms in the specification which the federation thought favored overseas competitors to such an extent that would shut out Dominion manufacturers altogether aud were contrary to the conditions adopted by the Public Works Department and the Stores Control Board, which invariably stipulate that the Dominion and overseas firms ho placed on the same level as regards exchange, customs, and sales tax. The board’s specifications, it was stated, appeared to bo designed to eliminate the New Zealand producer by exempting overseas competitors from the payment of exchange, primage and sales tax. Mr. Coates, in reply, said he had forwarded the letter to the board, and added that the Government had no intention of departing from its policy of giving the best possible consideration to local industries if the circumstances reasonably permitted this, and he did not draw any inference from the facts enuumcrated in the letter that would lead him to think that the board intended to depart from that line of action.

Mr. Campbell, president of the federation, replied that the federation’s fears were not allayed. There followed a letter from the general manager of railways setting out that the board had continued the Government’s general policy and it was felt that in actual practice no real 'difficulty would be encountered in applying the policy to the Wellington station contract.