LICENSE REFUSED DESPITE SHOE SHORTAGE

Chronicle (Levin), 26 June 1947, Page 2

LICENSE REFUSED DESPITE SHOE SHORTAGE

-Press Association

By Telegraph

GISBORNE, June 25. Returning to Australia almost imniediately after a short visit to Gisborne is Mr. S. H. Shaw, a Sydnev manufacturer, who regards the New Zealand policy of the control of secondary industries with a slightly jaundiced eye. His experience in connection with the proposal to establish a shoe-making indtistry in Gisborne has given hiri» some justification for this attitude. He planned to open a factory givin:.' employment to 40 at the start. He applied to the Bureau of Industries foi a licence to manufacture shoes, esti ma.ting his output at ffom 1500 to 200' pairs a weelc, and his consumption ot materials at a siibstantial volume. The application was turned down on the. reeommendation of the Industrial Plan ning Committee. He arranged for an appeal against the Bureau 's decision to be Hled, but, after this step was takeu and before the appeal was dealt with, the visitor became so annoyed by the treatment of his original application that he instructad his agents to withdraw. ' . ... The application was turned down on the ground that the licences already granted were fully capable of catering for any eventuality. Within a few months of the an nouncement of this decision, licences were being granted by °the New Zea land Government for importations. of thousands of pairs of shoes which are in short supply at present. The boot and slioe trade is awaiting a Ministerial decision on further requests for import licence^ for "some 400,000 additional pairs of footwear.