POLITICAL NOTES FROM WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LVII, Issue 8855, 5 September 1907, Page 6

POLITICAL NOTES FROM WELLINGTON.

Extra Duty on Cheap Boots

{Parliamentary Reporter.) The proposal of the Government to put a money duty, as well as the fifteen per cent, ad valorem tax, on cheap boots and shoes, excited a rather animated debate on Friday night. Mr Hardy, who had provided himself with several pairs of men's bluchers and other articles, which he had purchased in Wellington and Which wore declared to be locally manufactured, battled hard to get the new duty removed. The exhibits were cut'and divided longitudinally, so as to exhibit the composition of soles and heels, and the light thrown upon the anatomy of what appeared outwardly to bo sound awl solid footwear was a revelation. The soles consisted of thm pieces of waste split leather, mixed with cardboard and a substance which the Member for Selwyn provoked roars of laughter by desig'uatiug '' bull's wool.'' The argument was that shoddy boots were made in New Zealand as well as abroad, and it was little use imposing drastic duties to keep out spurious and worthless goods uutil we purified our own products. ]\Jfr Tanner, Member for Avon, who ' spoke with forty years' technical experience, declared in favour of the duty; but some of the Auckland members denounced it with great volubility, alleging that it would make bluchers most expensive to the "poor working man. " Mr Hogg invited members to support the extra duty, because it aimed at the suppres.-uouof "cheap and nasty foreign rubbish. " The boot-shops of the colony m some instances were deluged with the products of sweated work-rooms and foreign prisons. Undeniably, America turned out firstclass boots', because they had made a special feature of this kind of manufacture, and their up-to-date machinery enabled them to compete successfully with tho colonial maker, in spite of the duties imposed. He did not reckon lie was advocating the cause of the workers, because the mechanical bootmaker was rapidly taking the place of the manual bootmaker. But a heavy duty would make it worth the while of the distant manufacturer to come to New Zeaand and live amongst the consumers of-his goods. The proposed duty was agreed to.