TARIFFS AND COSTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 August 1930, Page 8

TARIFFS AND COSTS.

When increased protection is sought for a Now Zealand manufacturing industry there are usually emphatic protests against the statement that an increase in the Customs tariff generally means a higher cost to the purchaser of the protected goods. Parliament is assured that the additional protection will increase employment, make for more efficiency and in all probability reduce the cost of the manufactured ar-

ticle. The other side of the picture is shown in the proceedings before the Arbitration Court in regard to the boot manufacturing trade. The advocates of the employees opened his claim for increased wages by asserting that the recent increase in duties on imported boots and shoes gave the local manufacturer the opportunity of making more profit and that it was a fair thing that his employees should share in this and .receive higher wages. It seems that the lesson of Australia’s experience has not been fully learnt in this country. Parliament approved the increased Customs dues as an emergency provision to balance the next Budget. The Tariff Bill is scarcely, passed before organised Labour treats its provisions as permanent and as justification for raising costs to the public. That has been the attitude*, of Labour in Australia, and now the price of the artificially high production costs has to be paid the whole nation is involved and drastic retrenchment lies ahead. It seems deplorable that this country cannot profit by the object lesson on the other side of the Tasman without waiting for the disaster that has overtaken the Commonwealth. Unless, however, Labour leaders recognise that the effect of falling prices and the burden of taxation have seriously reduced the spending power of the Dominion, and realise also that only by increasing production, and therefore lessening its cost, can any iccovery be made, it looks as though only the bitterest of experience will have any effect. If that proves true it is the wage-earner who will feel the pinch most of all.