DUTY ON CEMENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 418, 28 July 1928, Page 9

DUTY ON CEMENT

N.Z. FARMERS’ DISCUSSION REPLY FROM MINISTER (Special to THE SUN) WELLINGTON, Friday. A remit asking the Government to remove the duty of £1 on cement led to an animated discussion at the annual conference of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union to-day. The Minister of Customs, the Hon. W. Downio Stewart, replied that the questions concerning the Customs were fully discussed when the tariff was considered by Parliament last year. The union would. he thought, agree it was not in the interests of the trade in the Dominion that the tariff should be continually altered, as this would bring uncertainty into commercial transactions and would thus interfere with the normal course of trade. There are about 600 persons engaged in the production of cement in the Dominion, and if the duty were removed as the union w'ished, a considerable number would be added to the unemployed list. As far as agricultural implements were concerned it was represented to the Government that New Zealand manufacturers of agricultural implements had in the past given valuable assistance to New Zealand farmers in designing and supplying at reasonable prices implements specially suited for the development of the Dominion. The various branches of the Farmers’ Union were not unanimous with respect to the duty on such implements. Information obtained about six months ago showed that the local prices of certain drills, cultivators and disc harrows had been reduced from 12 to 30 per cent, since protection was granted, whereas the price of the cor- , responding imported drill had been rej duced 5 per cent, and the imported I cultivators and disc harrows showed | no reduction in price. The conference deemed the Mou«> tar'* reply unsatisfactory.