LANGUISHING INDUSTRIES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 164, 29 July 1937, Page 4

LANGUISHING INDUSTRIES

The Minister of Industries and Commerce comes out to-day with a lengthy reply to the previousiy published statement of the Secretary ef ,the Manufacturers^ Association. This, of course, merits the same close perusal, but we doubt whether those who give it that will oome to the coneiusion that Mr Suilivan has made out any. very good case for himself. indeed, he finds himself i'orced to virtuaJj admission that there is good deal of ground i'or the representations made on behalf of our secondary industries, which should under ordiuary cucumstances, empioy so many more of our still idle hands. This, as has become customary in ministerial replies, may be buried in a gjreat mass of irrelevant verbiage, but it is there all the. same. it will be noted that, while the Secretary quoted quite a number of instances in which manufacturers' trade is languishing, Mr, Suilivan cites only one in which it is being maintained, and, as Mr Savage sagely said last night, "ono swallow does not make a summer.'' Then, Mr Suilivan, in order to exculpate himself and the Government, publishes the oiiicial statistician's tigures for last year to show how certain industries were then thriving. These, however, have nothing to do with the secretary's complaint, which was specihcally directed to the fall in trade since the beginning of this year, followmg on lvhat he admitted to have been some months of good business. Tlius the Minister has laid himself open to the accusation of a disingenuousness that is scarcely in keepmg with his responsible office. Nor can it be said that ths falling olf in the demand, or at any rate in the saie, of local products, is due to any like failure in the country' s main source of prosperity. Figures published to-day show that the value of the country's exports for the first half of the current calendar year is some £8-million ih excess of that for the oorresponding half of last year, thus providing ample funds for spending on the products of home industries, if only they could be placed on the market at prices com^ peting with those asked for imported articles. In this connection, too, it is significant that for the six months ended June last the value of our imports was close on £6-miIlion more than for the first half of last year. Mr Suilivan can scarcely make complaint that there is anything "melodramatic" in these cold and entireiy apposite tigures.