The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. MONDAY, JUNE 8, 1908. OUR OWN MAKE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2211, 8 June 1908, Page 2

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. MONDAY, JUNE 8, 1908. OUR OWN MAKE.

Slowly but nevertheless with sufficinet definiteness New Zealanders are making some progress towards a national ideal. It is significant that the fact has been in evidence in connection with sport for so many years before being noticeable in other lines of development. Thus our athletes, particularly footballers, have never been content to bury their identity with other members of the British Empire, but have competed exclusively and with credit under the banner of the land that gave them birth. There are signs that in the vital matter of defence our own people are beginning to realise the necessity of exhibiting a sense of personal responsibility in the interests of their wives and families, but the most marked event in this connection is the holding of New Zealand Industries Week in the chief centres, ahe occasion should represent the turning point from the old order of things to one under which it will be considered unpatriotic for anyone to purchase imported goods in preference to those manufactured in his own country. The old idea that New Zealand is essentially a producer of raw products such as wool, meat, butter and checso, and that its people should devote themselves entirely to these pursuits is fortunately dying out, 1 and the fact is becoming recognisod that it is the height of folly for, u's to send our golden sovereigns 12,000 and 15,000 miles to purchase goods from foreign countries instead of making them locally ourselves. This policy of the past simply has the effect that we are finding work for operatives in other countries whilst our own may walk the streets; enriching possible enemies at out own expense. Last year no less a sum than £15,000,000 was sent out of the country to pay for imported goods; an enormous amount for a population of less than a million. A careful investigation of the position would probably show that a large proportion of these goods could not ho profitably manufactured in this country, but it is just as Certain that large quantities could with advantage have been prepared in our own factories by our own workmen. Tlie per ceutage which could he economically manufactured in the country would, of course, considerably increased if greater protection could bo given in regard to many industries which are in their initial stages, but in this respect Parliament is not at all likely to move faster than public opinion. Once the people of New Zealand' make it known to their legislators that they want a policy which will make the encouragement of local manufactures a first consideration, they will soon obtain sufficient protection to give many of our industries a much needed fillip, but they must show that they aro in earnest, and this cannot be dome in any better way than by such movements as that which has just been inaugurated. - After all, it is the worker himself who chiefly needs education. In the past our manufacturers have worked under most discouraging conditions. They have had to pay wages and accept conditions which have •permitted their employees to maintain a higher standard of living than is possible in any other country in tho world, and at the same time compete with the products of the sweating dens of'England and tho Continent, whilst they have had to cater for 'a limited market. Despite these drawbacks, they have succeeded in many cases in beating the imported article in regard Inequality and price, and Jien they have been called upon to face the unpatriotic attitude of their own public who have retained a silly unreasoning prejudice against tho

locally manufactured article. It is in this last respect that Local Industries Week should do an immonso amount of good by setting forth in a striking way how much has been accomplished by our manufacturers. This country wants land settlement move than anything else, hub it also wants, side by side with that, a development of our manufacturing industries so that tho now nation which is being created may bo self-contained and able,, not only to raise crops and roir stock, but also to make the things its people need. It may seem unorthodox, even treasonable tx> say it, but tho fact, novorcthelesx, remains that New Zealand is just as favorably endowed by Nature to bocomo a manufacturing nation as to be what is known as n producing country. Wo havo tho raw materials in abundance, ample cheap power in our swift-running rivers, and a climito which 'is eminently suitable for thoso who are compelled to work indoors. In short, we possess all tho natural facilities for providing n community, with tho luxuries as well as tho necessities of civilisation, and it is our own fault if we do not utilise them.