LOCAL INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 134, 3 December 1938, Page 10

LOCAL INDUSTRY

PLAN FOR EXPANSION

INTENSIVE CAMPAIGN TO

OPEN

APPEAL BY MINISTER

"As the season of good will approaches, we appeal to our people to give practical effect to their good will by purchasing gifts that have been made by fellow-New Zealanders," said the Minister of Industries and Commerce (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) in an interview today, when announcing the inauguration of an intensive campaign to stimulate the expansion of the Dominion's manufacturing industries. The campaign will be launched on Monday evening next by his Excellency the Governor. General (Lord Galway), who will broadcast an address over the national stations.

"It must, be perfectly obvious to every thinking New Zealander that if we are to maintain our standard of living and provide employment for all our people, including the 10,000 or 12,000 who leave our schools and colleges each year, there must be an expansion of our existing industries, and the creation of new avenues of employment by the establishing of new industries." said Mr Sullivan. "For some time past the central executive of the Bureau of Indus'?y has been preparing plans for the launching of this campaign—a campaign that has as its objective what might be termed the instilling of a psychology of New Zealand mindedness in our people. That there must be an expansion of our manufacturing industries no one will deny. Naturally, when one talks of an. expansion the question arises: What effect, will this have on our market in the United Kingdom?

"The policy of the Government during the three years of its first term of office placed greater spending power in the hands of the people. This increased spending power created a demand for goods and services, and we find when we review the situation that our imports from the United Kingdom . and from other countries also, have greatly increased. Some £24,000,000 of extra spending power has been placed in the hands of the people, and of this amount only one-third has gone into our own factories.

This state of affairs demonstrates clearly that much of the money sent overseas for goods could, with advantage to our people and to the country, have been spent in New Zealand in the purchase of articles produced by our own workers, and still leave a fair margin to imports from the Motherland.

"To maintain our standard of living and to expand our existing manufacturing industries; to further develop our natural resources; to ensure that our people shall all be happily employed and our production very materially increased, it is necessary that we should stimulate the demand for goods made in New Zealand, goods manufactured by New Zealanders. This stimulation can only be given by the people of New Zealand themselves. Our national wealth is represented in our national production, and to sustain and improve our standard of living it is essential that there should be more production. CREATION OF DEMAND. "This can only be achieved by the creation of a demand for the goods made in our own country. As we advance along this road so will we be creating a demand for goods that cannot be produced in New Zealand. Recent history has proved beyond all argument that increased spending power in the hands of the people does create a demand for goods and services. What we are aiming at, therefore, in the intensive radio and publicity campaign we are now launching is the fuller development of our own resources, and a greater demand for the products of our own workers and manufacturers.

"This need cause no concern regarding our market in the Mother Country. As I quoted at the manufacturers' conference on Tuesday last our own manufactures reached their lowest level in 1932 when their total value was £17,700,000. Last year this figure had increased to £25,200,000. Our imports from the United Kingdom also reached their lowest level in 1932-33 when the total was £11,200,000. Last year these imports had risen to £26,----700,000. Our manufactures, therefore, increased to the extent of 50 per cent., but, allowing for the increase in population, our imports have increased by 119.2 per cent. These figures speak for themselves and require no comment.

"Every man and woman now in employment can do his or her share to build up the Dominion by giving preference to New Zealand goods when making purchases. They will thus be keeping their own kin in a job and also ensuring that the job they themselves have will return to them that economic and social security that all desire. As we each purchase the goods produced by our own peoplt so will the demand grow. I cannot stress that too strongly.

"This is more than an appeal to patriotism, it is the application of sound common sense to the problem that faces every man and woman—the retaining of a job and the maintaining of their standard of living.

"Our industries and our natural resources must be developed to a greater extent than ever before, and to this end all the aids of scientific and industrial research, all the waste that can be eliminated from production, all the factors that will ensure maximum production with minimum fatigue and the maintenance of high standards of quality will be brought to bear on industry.

'That briefly, is the dynamic force behind the campaign we are now ! launching Just recently the Empire Relations Conference unanimously agreed that each country was entitled to first preference in its own internal market. This point of view finds a ready sympathy with the Ministers of his Majesty's Government in Great Britain. They have emphatically stated that there must be a sound and progressive development of secondary industries in the Dominion if the Empire's resources are to be developed as fully as the times demand IMPORTANCE OF CAMPAIGN. "It is with a full sense of the bene,fits that will accrue to New Zealand in particular, and the Empire in general, that we launch this campaign for the development of all our resources. Realising the importance of the issues we are endeavouring to instil in the minds of our people a consciousness of the fact that every individual can help achieve the full development all must desire. The campaign will be opened by his Excellency the.Governor-General when he speaks over the stations of the National Broadcasting Service at 7.10 o'clock on Monday . night. This talk will be followed by other talks each Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday night, when the Prime Minister, members of the Cabinet, and representa-

tives of our manufacturing and our industrial organisations will make their contribution to this campaign for the national welfare.

"As the season of good will approaches we appeal to our people to give practical effect to their good will by purchasing gifts that have been made by fellow-New Zealanders," concluded -the Minister. "It is to our own New Zealand people, that we must look for the development of our resources, and only in so far as they give preference to New Zealand goods; and only in so far as each unit in the scheme of production is efficiently producing a maximum amount of goods and services can we build our country up to that state of internal stability and economic soundness that should be the goal of all New Zealanders. It is a goal worth some effcrt and I am sure that we will have the loyal cooperation of all sections of the community, as the development of our country is something that rises above and beyond party politics or the differences that might in other ways divide us. lam confident that we will achieve our objective, and I am grateful to the officers of the Departments concerned and to Professor Shelley and his officers for the wholehearted support they have given to this campaign. I am also appreciative of the Press for the publicity they have given to the issues involved."