HIGHER COSTS

Evening Post, Issue 37, 12 August 1936, Page 16

HIGHER COSTS

NEW LABOUR LAWS

PROTECTION OF LOCAL

INDUSTRIES ?

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, August 11. A desire that the Government should give an indication whether it intended to protect the manufacturing industries against loss of business arising out of increased costs was expressed by members of the committee of the Dunedin Manufacturers' Association at a meeting today. The matter was raised during a discussion of the Government's attitude towards the manufacturing industries. The chairman, Mr. J. Sutherland Ross, said that the question had been under discussion by the. council of the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation ever since the Government's new labour legislation ' had been first mooted. It was realised that the inevitable effect of the legislation providing for increased wages and shorter hours of work was to add appreciably to manufacturing costs. Many manufacturers had to face competition from imported goods, and very often the securing of business to keep local factories busy was a question of price. There' was ,a danger that business would go past local manufacturer when he found himself compelled to increase his prices to cover higher costs now to be met. The aim of the Government was to absorb labour into productive work, and if industries were to absorb an increasing volume of labour they must be assured of an increasing volume of business and not exposed to a prospective loss of business from overseas countries. The Government had expressed high 1 hopes, the chairman added, that the increased purchasing power of the public would bring about an acceleration of business, but the important point was to ensure that there would be a corresponding stimulation of local industries. The Government had given general assurances that encouragement of local industries was part of its. ! policy. Up to the present, however, the continued efforts of manufacturers had failed to obtain from the Government any indication of the steps it proposed taking to make that policy effective. It .was decided to support the New Zealand Federation in its efforts to obtain a definite statement from the Government of its intentions.