Little to Hope For

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 166, 4 October 1927, Page 9

Little to Hope For

INDUSTRIALISTS GLUM NEW TARIFF PROBLEMS Campaigning in the capital city against the n\ew customs tariff, the New Zealand manufacturer* had little encouragement from the Government for expectations of protection. The Minister of Customs told a deputation that more manufacturers in Parliament was their hope. At the meeting of the Auckland Manufacturers’ Association held yesterday, Mr. J. A. C. Allum and Mr. J. Findlay reported that 50 New Zealand manufacturers had waited on the Prime Minister who sent them along to the Minister of Customs after he had promised to bring to the notice of his Government the question of requiring an increased percentage of British material or labour in preferred goods, and also the proposal for a tariff board. The Minister of Customs promised to look into complaints made but it was evident that he did not wish to make any material alteration. In view of the Minister having stated that in deciding the protection to be accorded he had taken into consideration the possibility of further utilising New Zealand products, the tariff committee set up by the manufacturers took up the special cases of the boot and the woollens industries and waited on the Minister of Customs again but gained the impression that the Government did not intend to give those industries any further consideration. While the association had criticised the Government over the new tariff, stated the report, there was no excuse for some private and offensive criticism which had been levelled against the Government and the Minister of Customs, and the association dissociated itself from those expressions. “We believe that the Government is mistaken in its policy or lack of policy as far as the local manufacturer is concerned, but we do not impugn the honesty of purpose of the responsible parties.”