PLANT FOR PUBLIC WORKS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19375, 13 July 1937, Page 9

PLANT FOR PUBLIC WORKS

AMERICAN MACHINES REPLY TO MINISTER j The purchase of certain road-mak-ing machinery by the Government was the subject of a statement made in Wellington by Colonel J. Hargest, M.P. for Awarua, in reply to the comment of the aGting-Minister of Customs, the Hon. Mark Fagan. Colonel Hargest said that as he was not speaking publicly for some little time, he would thank the Minister for his explanation which was full, if not entirely satisfactory. "He stated that a very unsatisfactory feature of my address was the implication that the concessions granted under the provisions of section 11 of the Customs Act in respect of certain kinds of road-making machinery have been restricted to certain makes only, and that this allegation was not in accordance with fact, and then he proceeded to say that several firms nave been granted concessions in respect of types of road-making machinery similar to those I referred to. Names of Makers “I am glad to take note of that, but would invite the Minister to publish the names of the makes of graders, bulldozers and carry-all scrapers, etc., that have been gazetted since January of this year in addition to ihose I named. Concessions of this kind surely can only be legal if they are published in the Gazette, and so far I have not been able to discover the names of any other makes since the date of the first notice, April 1. “I do not for a moment believe that the Minister would agree to the 'hole-and-corner’ method of giving a concession without legislative action, but I would be glad to see the notice in print.

"This, however, I do say, that it has been most difficult for the agents for other makes —and makes that compete in America on formidable terms with those favoured by the Gazette notice—to effect sales to the Public Works Department. What would be an excellent way of clearing the matter up would be for the Ministry to publish the types and names of the respective machines purchased by the department since December, 1935. If that is not possible at the moment I shall endeavour to obtain it during the coming session. • Tariff Preference “One other point—the Minister stated that there was no point in maintaining tariff preference on nonexistent British goods, and that the insistence on payments can only have the effect of increasing the price to local bodies. This was not a case of reducing tkriff preference—it meant the complete elimination of the duty, ind to-day the New Zealand taxpayer has to find that money somehow in some other form of taxation in order to allow the free entry of favoured types of American machinery into the Dominion.”