I move what, in fact, amounts to a motion to have considered amendment 11, and the amendments on pages five and six, as follows:
49. In paragraph 1 (a), lines 20 and 23, to delete the words "slippers, goloshes" where they occur in those lines.
50. In paragraph 1 (a), line 22, after the word "but" to insert the words "excluding all evening shoes and."
51. In paragraph 1 (a), line 24, after the word "children" to add the words "of any size from 0 to 1 (including sizes 0 to 6, 7 to 10, and 11 to 1)."
53. In paragraph 1 (a), line 24, after the word "children" to insert the words "and excluding all ladies' welted and machine sewn footwear."
55. In paragraph 1 (b), line 29, after the word "intended" to insert the words "or use in connection with the manufacture of evening shoes or intended."
56. To add at the end of paragraph 1 (b), line 29, the words "in footwear of any size from 0 to 1 (including sizes 0 to 6, 7 to 10, and 11 to 1)."
58. To add at the end of paragraph 1 (b), line 29, the words "or for use in connection with the manufacture of all ladies' welted and machine sewn footwear."
60. In paragraph 2 (a), lines 32 and 35, to delete the word "slippers" where it occurs in those lines.
61. In paragraph 2 (a), line 34, after the word "but" to insert the words "excluding all evening shoes and."
62. In paragraph 2 (a), line 36, after the word "children" to insert the words "of any size from 0 to 1 (including sizes 0 to 6, 7 to 10, and 11 to 1)."
64. In paragraph 2 (a), line 36, after the word "children" to insert the words "and excluding all ladies' welted and machine sewn footwear, and."
67. To add at the end of paragraph 2 (b), line 42, the words "in footwear of any size from 0 to 1 (including sizes 0 to 6, 7 to 10, and 11 to 1)."
69. To add at the end of paragraph 2 (b), line 42, the words "or for use in connection with the manufacture of ladies' welted and machine sewn footwear."
71. To delete paragraph 3.
72. In paragraph 4, line 51, to delete the word "slippers."
73. To add at the end of paragraph 4 the words: —
"but excluding —
(a) all slippers;
(b) all evening shoes;
(c) all boots, shoes, goloshes, sandals, clogs intended for wear by infants or young children and of any size from 0 to 1 (including sizes 0-6, 7-10, 11-1);
(d) all ladies' welted and machine sewn footwear;
(e) all shaped soles (whether complete or in parts), shaped heels (whether complete or in parts) and shaped uppers intended for use in connection with the manufacture of —
(i) slippers;
(ii) evening wear;
(iii) footwear intended for infants or young children and of any size from 0 to 1 (including sizes 0 to 6, 7 to 10, and 11 to 1), or
(iv) ladies' welted and machine sewn footwear."
They may have to be divided on, separately, but I think they all fall for discussion together. Amendment 11 is to insert, in Section 4, a new sub-section as above, and then the other amendments set out the segregation of these items as I would like to have them. They can be simply enough explained, and although, as I say, we may have to take divisions on them seriatim, they can be discussed, I think, together. I aim at making a new disposition of the duties in regard to goloshes of a particular type, slippers, evening shoes, children's shoes of particular sizes mentioned, and ladies' footwear, and, in effect, what I am proposing comes to this, that I want to take away, from that part of the Second Schedule which imposes a duty of 37½ per cent., slippers and goloshes of leather, all evening shoes, all boots or shoes or sandals or clogs intended for wear by young children, of all sizes from 0 to 1, including in these sizes the sizes 0 to 6, 7 to 10, and 11 to 1, and excluding all ladies' footwear, if welted and machine sewn.
The full effect of that will be seen from amendment 73, for I am really adding at the end of paragraph 4 of the Schedule the words "excluding all slippers, all evening shoes, all boots, shoes, goloshes, sandals and clogs intended for wear by infants and young children, and from any size from 0 to 1, including 0 to 6, 7 to 10 and 11 to 1, and all ladies' welted and machine sewn footwear, as well as all shaped soles, heels and uppers for any of these articles. I want to get that list of exemptions very carefully considered, because this is a tariff in which we, on this side, are very deeply interested. We put it on, phrasing it to be the biggest experiment we were making in protective tariffs, and we indicated at the time we were putting it on that, as it was an experiment, we were not setting ourselves to any great segregation of the items that we thought might be speedily made in this country, and because we knew that doing it in that general way there was going to be, for some years to come, an increased cost to the community, we remitted the tea duty. We thought that the charge which would be put on the community by reason of this tax on boots and shoes would be about equal to the amount of the tea duty, as then paid, and we remitted the one in order to equalise the other.
There has been no tariff so much criticised as that particular one, and from time to time, as criticisms appeared in the newspapers, or were voiced here, I had a consultation with a very great number of people in the trade, and had, from time to time, different reasons put before me by them as to why the tariff had not been more of a success, and had often, not merely suggestions, but recommendations of a very strong type made to me that the tariff should be modified. I suppose there was hardly ever an occasion on which modification was suggested that there was not a very definite statement made that they wanted, or desired to have excluded from the operations of the tariff, goods which they said were not being made here, and were never likely to be made, and, amongst these, they included evening wear. At first, it was described as "ladies" fancy evening wear," but afterwards, when a general recommendation came forward, it was put in the form of "ladies and gentlemen's evening wear." They also asked to have slippers exempted. They asked to have exempted—generally speaking, the phrase used was —"all babies' shoes," but, later on, that phrase came to be used in the more extended form of "children's shoes." A little while later that was modified to the point of "children's shoes, at least, of every size from 0 to 6," but, on a later occasion, a recommendation was again put forward that it should be "children's shoes."
From time to time, although it was not what might be called a recommendation by any great body of the trade, there certainly was a very strong recommendation made by a considerable number of them that we should exclude the finer grades of shoes, and that, particularly, we should exclude the finer grades of ladies' footwear. I do not mind seeing — in fact I would welcome seeing — the tariff increased to give these people a chance of making better progress than they have made in the past, but I think, if we are going to get progress speedily, we have to insist that manufacturers in the country will turn their attention to the article they have been, in the main, producing effectively, and that is the heavy boot and shoe. If we want to give them some extra chance of development in a variety of lines — and I think they should get that chance — let us give them also the men's and boys' finer type of footwear, but let us remove from them — because, in the main, these articles are only an encumbrance and an embarrassment to them—the things that they have confessed they were not likely to make ever, and certainly are not making to-day. These will be the categories I enumerate, namely, slippers, evening shoes, boots and shoes for infants and young children of the sizes I have mentioned, and ladies' welted shoes.