NEW RAILWAY STATION

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19587, 6 September 1933, Page 9

NEW RAILWAY STATION

OVERSEAS TENDERERS FAVOURED PROTEST ENTERED The New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation has addressed to the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, Acting-Prime Minister, a strong protest against the differentiation in conditions made by the Railways Board In the specification for the new railway station at Wellington, as between New Zealand and overseas Arms. A copy of the letter sent by Mr A. E. Mander to Mr Coates, has been ■received by Mr C. Carr, M.P. In it, Mr Mander asks whether the Federation is correct in its interpretation of three points in the specification for the new railway station at Wellington, and whether these conditions accurately express the Government’s policy and intention. The letter proceeds: Special conditions: Clause I. “Prices for materials intended to be imported from Great Britain shall be ... . converted into New Zealand currency at par. . . Clause XIII: “All materials imported .... the contractor shall not be affected by any imposition of Customs duties or sales tax . . . .” Clause XXII: “The contractor shall be liable for* sales tax on all materials .... which he may purchase within the Dominion.” At a Disadvantage. “If these conditions bear their apparent meaning, it is evident that New Zealand producers will be placed at so serious a disadvantage that there is no reasonable hope of their being able to compete with manufacturers overseas. New Zealand industries, in the first place, will have been obliged to pay 25 per cent exchange premium on all their Imported materials (or the equivalent in export parity on materials obtained in the Dominion), while their overseas competitors are permitted to avoid exchange altogether. In the second place, New Zealand manufacturers will have been required to pay primage duty on imported materials, which the overseas competitor is allowed to avoid. In the third place, it is provided that all imported materials shall be exempted from sales tax, and that Dominion materials (unless normally exempt), shall be liable to sales tax as usual. “These conditions are exactly the opposite of the conditions adopted by the Stores Control Board, wfcich bodies invariably stipulate that Dominion and overseas competitors shall be placed on the same level as regards exchange, customs and sales tax. This Railways Board specification, on the contrary, appears to 1 ave been designed to eliminate the New Zealand producer by exempting his overseas competitor from the payment of exchange, primage artfi sales tax—which any New Zealand firm would have to meet.” Industries Affected. “Among the New Zealand industries affected, I may mention steel carement windows, paint, nails, tiles, sanitary earthenware, cement, electrical fittings and plumbing materials, but this list is by no means comply \ As it is understood that the Gover rent’s reason for authorising this work at the present time was its desire to give additional employment, and release additional spending power in the Dominion, it is difficult to account for the action of the Railways Board in drawing up conditions which would ensure that as much as possible shall be obtained from overseas and as little as possible from the industries of New Zealand. “My Federation wishes to record a strong protest against this extraordinary action of the Railways Board, and appeals to the Government or Parliament to instruct the Board to amend its cond: ions in such a manner as to place New Zealand industries on the same competitive basis as overseas industries,” the letter concluded Mr Carr added that he had replied stating that if the facts were as stated in the letter, he would register a protest against the Board’s action as being not only impolitic, but utterly reprehensible.