“NOT THE SAME SPEECH”

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1933, Page 4

“NOT THE SAME SPEECH”

MR. POLSON ANSWERS CRITICS; REPLY TO MANUFACTURERS. "In my speech to the Farmers’ Union conference on the question of tariffs and quotas to which the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation has taken exception I quoted extensively from speeches of British Ministers, including one delivered by Mr. W. E. Elliot, Minister of Agriculture, delivered some time ago, and declared that these were a definite indication (not statement) that if the Dominions (not New Zealand only) did not reduce tariffs they would be subject, firstly to a preferential duty and secondly to a restriction of imports,” said Mr. W. J. Polson, M.P., Dominion president of the Farmers’ Union, when interviewed by a Daily News reporter in connection with the attitude taken up by the Manufacturers’ Federation towards certain of Mr. Polson’s remarks made in an address to tfie recent Farmers’ Union conference. Mr. Polson went on to say that the extract from Mr. Elliot’s speech which he had handed to the Press had appeared in many newspapers and was not the speech tabled a few days ago. Mr. Polson still asserted that recent action by the British Government showed that his view was correct, and he emphasised that if New Zealand placed itself in the same position with regard to tariffs as Noijjiem Ireland, for example, which was a selfr-goveming Dominion, the fact that its distance from the market was greater should not prejudice New Zealand in asking for some other treatment. It was, said Mr. Polson, the duty 'of the country to see that its essential primary industries received their opportunity to carry on with some degree of success.