DRASTIC CUTS IN IMPORTS

Southland Times, Issue 23782, 1 April 1939, Page 6

DRASTIC CUTS IN IMPORTS

Licences For Second Half Of Year

FOREIGN GOODS REDUCED Restrictions Thought More Rigid (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 31. From the second-period import licences issued in Wellington so far it appears that the Government’s policy is to cut foreign importations even more drastically than in the January-June half of the year. The restrictions on many British lines are also being extended. Most retail and smaller importing firms are still wanting to know how they will fare in the July-Decem-ber period but some big warehouses have received up to two-thirds of their licences.

The manager of one warehouse said today that the restrictions on foreign lines amounted practically to prohibition in most cases. . “There are ample stocks in New Zealand for the winter season so far as the drapery trade is concerned,” he said. “The pinch will come next September. In the grocery trade where ordering is done from month to month instead of from season to season it may come earlier.” ' , He said his application for licences to import shirts, collars and pyjamas from the United Knigdom had been refused entirely. In the first period imports of these lines had been cut 50 per cent, on those for the corresponding period of the previous year. He gave the following comparison of cuts imposed in other lines, all of them British: ' r Ist period 2nd period

Cotton piece goods no cut no cut The speaker added that he understood that other warehouses had received the same treatment as his firm. Other importers still awaiting their second-period licences said today that in the meantime their business was at a standstill because they had already disposed of all that they had been allowed to import in the first half of the year.

cut p.c. cut p.c. Fancy goods 25 50 Toilet preparations 25 50 Haberdashery 30 40 Woollen piece goods 40 40