Strike Worry To Manufacturers

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31092, 22 June 1966, Page 5

Strike Worry To Manufacturers

The Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association will ask the Manufacturers’ Federation to approach the Customs Department and, if necessary, the Department of Industries and Commerce to get a ruling on whether manufacturers will get less from import licences when orders for goods have to be transferred from Britain to other countries because of the strike.

Mr R. G. Pearce, immediate past president of the association, said that in some cases manufacturers might have to pay an extra 20 per cent for goods from the United States or Australia that would normally have come from Britain.

little that the federation could do to assist manufacturers. He said that the Prime Minister’s announcement that immediate negotiations had broken down was a matter of grave concern to manufacturers. He said that as most members knew, most New Zealand firms under import licensing had been carrying not more than about two months* stock. The association also decided to approach shipping companies to find out if more ships from the United Kingdom could sail to South Island ports after the strike was finished instead of coming down the New Zealand coast.

The president of the federation (Mr J. R. Maddren) made three suggestions by which manufacturers might help to overcome shortages of raw materials if the strike continued. They were:

Manufacturers could trade directly with other manufacturers. Manufacturers could trade on a district group basis. Materials in short supply could be exchanged throughout the federation which would link up the various associations. Mr Maddren said there was