REGULATION OF TARIFFS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15836, 5 June 1919, Page 3

REGULATION OF TARIFFS.

INTERESTING EVIDENCE.

(Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, June 4. Giving evidence before the Industries Committee, Mr W. B. Montgomery, Comptroller of Customs, described the measures taken in Australia to regulate the tariff. A Tariff Board had been established, having general functions relating to trade and industry. The Board had no power to amend the tariff; it merely made recommendations. He understood the recommendations had not had very much influence with Parliament in Australia. The process of tariff amendment in Australia was 'the same as in New Zealand. Under the Australian tariff New Zealand was treated as a foreign country. New Zealand gave Australia preferential treatment. A reciprocal tariff treaty arranged with Australia by Mr P. M. B. Fisher lapsed before completion, owing to change of Government in the Commonwealth. There had been cases of deliberate dumping of overseas goods in New Zealand with the object of killing a local industry. Eeplying to questions, Mr Montgomery said the Government had no special power at present to prevent dumping from overseas countries, but he had submitted a clause somewhat similar to the law in operation in Canada. The clause had the approval of the Minister of Customs. It was not proposed to interfere with dumping in cases where no local industry was threatened. He believed New Zealand should have an evolutionary tariff instead of a fixed one. The existing tariff was not sufficiently elastic, and there was no doubt it had hampered the establishment of industries in the Dominion. He had prepared an amendment to the Customs law, which he understood the Minister was prepared to place before Parliament at the first opportunity. The amendment was designed to rectify anomalies and remove conditions that had been injurious to New Zealand manufactures. The clause provedide, in the case of an article admitted free, that the Minister should have power to impose a preferential duty in favour of British dominions,