THE TARIFF

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 270, 15 November 1932, Page 8

THE TARIFF

COMING REVISION GOVERNMENT’S PLANS A PERMANENT BOARD? [Per Press Association J WELLINGTON, Nu\. 11. The piecise form the proposed gen era! revision of New Zealand's tariff will take is still a matter for Cabinet consideration, according to a statement made to-day by the Prime Minister (the Right Hon. G. VV. Forbes). Mr. Forbes was asked whether the Ministry had yet reached a decision on the proposal that a permanent Tariff Board should be established in the Dominion, the board to undertake its first task with the overhaul of the tariff. The Prime Minister's reply was in the negative, and he intimated further that so far no consideration had been accorded that suggestion or even to the nature of the contemplated inquiry. “The whole question will be carefully gone into after the session ends,” added Mr. Forbes, “and it is possible that the investigation will be commenced early in the New Year. In any case. Cabinet will then be in a position to make its announcement.”

In the Parliamentary lobbies there is still much speculation on the, subject. An earlier statement by the Right Hon. J. G. Coates, who led the New Zealand delegation to the Ottawa Conference, and who has been devoting considerable time to tariff and allied subjects since his return to the Dominion, was construed by some to mean that the investigation might be purely a departmental one, but it is possible that this construction was erroneous. Dr. G. Craig, the present Comptroller of Customs, is due to retire on superannuation shortly and it has been suggested that he might be invited carry out the work in association with two or three technical and advisory officers as was done in 1927, but there is more than a suspicion that Dr. Craig subscribes to the view of the Hon. W. Downie Stewart, as ex pressed after the last general revision, as to the inroads made by undertakings of that nature. Mr. Stewart recorded that he did not want to be associated with another general revision of the Customs tariff, and unless Dr. Craig has changed his views, his preference is identical with the Minister’s. R-eports are current that the De velopment of Industries Committee is likely to suggest to the Government the appointment of a Tariff Board, to be come a permanent body with semiexecutive functions, after the com pletion of the major task, but this is pure speculation. The actual position is that the Government does not itself know what policy to adopt, and until Cabinet goes fully into the question the matter will remain in the air, with the possibility of a temporary committee consisting of official and commercial representatives and an independent chairman being one of the alternatives for ultimate consideration. The Commission which revised the Customs tariff in 1927 consisted of Dr. G. Craig (chairman) and Messrs. G. W. Clinkard (the advisory officer -of the Industries Department), J. H. Forrester (technical adviser and inquiry offi cor of the Customs Department), and T. H. M. Tanner (examining officer. Customs Department, Wellington).