A HEAVY BURDEN.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 301, 19 December 1931, Page 31 (Supplement)

A HEAVY BURDEN.

Protection in New Zealand Condemned. STATEMENT BACKED UP. Per Press Association. NEW PLYMOUTH, December 18. Lord Bledisloe’s speech at Stratford urging the need for caution in building up secondary industries, which was the subject of criticism by the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association, received the support of the North Taranaki Executive of the Farmers’ Union to-day. Mr H. E. Blyde, the president, said that the protection required by secondary industries was costing New Zealand seven millions annually, a sum sufficient to provide work for all the unemployed for a whole year. That protection was a heavy burden on the primary producers. He urged that instead of a “Buy New Zealand” campaign, they should seek to buy British. By so doing New Zealand would buy manufactures which could be cheaply produced in Britain, while Britain would be enabled to buy primary produce cheaply produced in the Dominion. The executive passed a resolution supporting the sentiments expressed by Lord Bledisloe, it being emphasised that protection was the cause of greatly increased costs to farmers.