GAS COOKER IMPORTS

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16454, 16 June 1921, Page 4

GAS COOKER IMPORTS

PROHIBITION REVOKED,

TPkr Press Association.! WELLINGTON, June 10. The following communication has been received from the Hon AN . Don nie Stewart, Minister ol : Customs: “ It has now been decided to revoke the Urder-in-Council relating to gas cookers, as the reason for its continuance has ceased to exist. AN ben the Order-in-Coune.il was passed the object was io give us time to make inquiries in England as to whether there was any explanation of apparent cases of dumping. Our cable reply 1 ruin England has now been received. It is not critirclv satisfactory, but it indicates that the instances of dumping that were under review may be open to explanation. or were isolated cases and not part- of a settled policy, “ The curious tiling is that, in spit© of all the criticism aimed at the Order-in-Couucil. whenever I have met importers of gas cookers they have expressed themselves as satisfied that bur action was reasonable and justifiable. No one has been injured by the Order-in-Counci 1. and the most that has happened is a temporary suspension of some permits until advice could bo obtained by cable. The Ordor-iu-Couucil was purely a precautionary measure to enable us to control the situation. Had wc * topped to make full inquiries before issuing the Ordcr-in-Oounoil. the whole object/ in view might have been defeated by large dumping contracts being made while we were still investigating. “ Tbe chief criticism has been on the broad ground that the use of an Order-in-Council for such a purpose is an arbitrarv exercise of authority by trie Executive. My replv to tba'tt is that as we have no anti-dumping legislation wc had to do the best we could without it. AToreovcr. if new tariff legislation is to he adapted to suit modern conditions, T think it will have to confer more discretionary powers than past legislation has done. If Parliament refuses such powers, then we must go on with a cast-iron tariff in_ cap-able of adaptation to emergencies.*’