59

1.-12.

0. H. GILBY.

siderable time. A moving picture was taken on the occasion, which will be shown at a special exhibition to the Committee at any time to suit it. A lame man took his seat on the plough and manipulated it as easily as a man with his sound limbs. An invention of this sort is one that the Government essentially should assist. It is patented in all countries where agriculture is carried out, but you cannot get behind vested interests. The people who make ploughs say, "We do not want yours; we have one of our own." It does not matter that their plough is not so good; they are not going to bother about it. The proposed Board would examine into these things and have them tried at the Government expense. If it is a failure that is the end of it, and if it is a success the country would get the benefit. The difficulty I have experienced in this matter is considerable. 1 have been to the Minister of Agriculture and tried to get him to come and sec the thing going, but he has not come. The Director of Agriculture is very much impressed with it, but that is as far as I can get with him. I asked for the assistance of the Lincoln College agricultural department, and they were as lukewarm as any one else. Manufacturers have their own patents, and will not look at this one. This invention can be attached to any plough that is made. We know the merits of it, and are prepared to prove them. We will supply it to the Government to test it. All we want is to have a Board to go to and say, " Test this machine, and if it is right give us a certificate.". The Government ought to make some provision for matters of this sort, so that inventors can get a fair chance. Charles John Morrison, of Morrison and Morrison, Ink-manufacturers, examined. (No. 44.) We manufacture printers' ink, printers' varnish, and printers' roller-composition, and 1 take this opportunity of bringing before your notice the handicap imposed on the development of the industry in New Zealand. The printing-ink industry is practically unprotected. The present tariff imposes a duty of 10 per cent, on foreign printing-ink. This duty is too small to afford adequate protection against foreign competitors. The bulk of the. dry colours used in the manufacture of printing-ink is of foreign manufacture, and British and Australian manufacturers using the same have their manufactured inks admitted free of duty to the Dominion, while we are forced to pay duty on the dry colours we use for printing-ink purposes. As Australian manufacturers are heavily protected we are forced to depend solely upon New Zealand for our livelihood, while they are permitted to overrun this market and develop their industries at our expense. One writing-ink manufacturer (Meek's) is well protected. I do not wish to see black newspaper-ink made dutiable, because we do not manufacture it. The plant required for such ink would not be justified by the New Zealand consumption of the article. We employ seven hands to produce our ink, but we should be employing twelve hands. We make lithographic and letterpress inks. We use thousands of tins per annum, which gives employment to tinsmiths. We manufacture the whole range of jobbing-inks, and have supplied practically the whole of the requirements of New Zealand for the last three years of the war period. If we get the protection we ask for it would enable us to hold the trade we have now got. In Australia there is a general tariff on printing-ink of lOd. per pound, or 35 per cent., and a preferential tariff of Bd. per pound, or 30 per cent. Goods invoiced at 6d. and under per pound, in packages containing not less than 1 cwt,, are subject to a general tariff of 35 per cent, or a preferential tariff of 30 per cent. 1 suggest to the Committee that the tariff in New Zealand should be on the Australian lines. If protection were given to us it would be our policy to maintain our present prices and hold the market with those prices, with which wo are satisfied. As a result of the protection in Australia three new firms started, to my knowledge. I am agreeable that the Government should regulate the prices. With regard to printers' roller-composition, which is admitted free, the main ingredients of it are gelatine and glycerine. We use locally made gelatine. On glycerine we pay a duty of 20 per cent, on British manufacture, while rollercomposition of outside manufacture is admitted free of duty. In Australia there is a general tariff of 45 per cent, and a preferential tariff of 35 per cent. In New Zealand the duty should be 20 per cent., with a preferential duty of 10 per cent. We have been left at the mercy of outside manufacturers, for the past twelve years, and nevertheless have succeeded in establishing our industry in the Dominion. Our brand is " Flexo." I know that glycerine is largely used for purposes other than that for which we use it. Artists' dry colour has a duty in New Zealand, and I am prepared to recommend that it should stand as at present. G. L. Pomfret-Dodd, representing Hutchinson's Scales Australasia (Limited), examined. (No. 45.) 1 wish to explain that the industry in which we are concerned has been in operation for ten years. We manufacture at our Christchurch works springless automatic scales for industries and trades. During all the time we have been in existence the expansion of the company's operations has been severely hampered owing to the keen competition emanating from the importation of scales of foreign origin. Particularly has this been so in regard to the importation and sale of dairy weighing-appliances, which under the present tariff are imported free of duty, and counter-scales of American manufacture, especially all classes of spring scales. We recommend as a protection to the industry, which is capable of fulfilling from a highly scientific point of view the whole of the Dominion's requirements in this respect, an increased tariff calculated to place the local industry in a position to meet, preferentially, overseas competition in respect of all classes of weighing-appliances imported. We suggest that in order to establish improved public safety the New Zealand Government should fall into line with other Governments by placing on the statute-book legislation abolishing all types of spring scales for public use. To the Chairman.] The tariff on counter-scales is 20 per cent., with 10 per cent, preferential, and even with a duty of 30 per cent, against the foreign article we want more. We had a case