DOMINION DEVELOPMENT.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 January 1918, Page 3

DOMINION DEVELOPMENT.

(Waikato “Independent”) i-ast year the Rt. Hon. Christopher Addison, P.C., M.P., delivered a remarkable speech iu the British House of Commons. This speecli was a forceful indictment of the backward and unscientific methods in. use throughout the British commercial world. Among other strong statements he said: “Wo have suffered in the war not only from old fashioned plant and negligent financial methods, but from a serious work as applied to industry. At the beginning of the war we found our•olves with no facilities to smelt the copper produced in our own colonies. ’>Ye were dependent on Germany for the potash so vital to some of our industries and to our agriculture- The story of glass and dyes is so well known that I need do no more than refer to it, and tile, catalogue could be continued to -a. great extent. Instead of having to look to Germany For our 4 fertilisers we should he able to produce at home spelter and sulphuric acid and fertilisers and many other products related to those matters by modern,' ooonomical and efficient methods on a vastly augmented scale”. Now what the Hon. gentleman j spoke about here referred of course to 1 the British Lies, hut it. provides food for thought for this Dominion of ours. What fields for development are right here ill this country. The Westland I Chamber of Commerce, in a circular to other chambers has taken up this mat. ter of development of the resources of the Dominion very seriously and rightly so. Included in the list of workable commodities at present undeveloped, the Westland Chamber list granite, Freestone. Marble. Alum. Shale, Asbestos, Slate. Load, Plumbago and about twenty others. The i chamber in question urges in effect the establish ment of a committee for scientific and industrial research for the Dominion. There is no doubt that such a committee would be extremely useful in demonstrating the possibilities of development of quite a number of the natural resources oi the country. The great idea should be to make New Zealand as self-contained as possible in the matter of producing for ourselves, what we now have to largely import. It is indeed a national duty because it is quite demonstrable that New Zealand can hr- - come a great manufacturing country as ' well as a great produce country. Let i, not this matter be shelved, it is really ] a most vital and a most serious matter, r Carried out effectively it means that 9 New Zealand would become a powerfu 1 :iml rich industrial country adding mil--1 lions to her population. Left as it is i- it means that our population figure i- w ill not increase in anything like tin: 9 ratio they should. Development of tin resources of the Dominion should b< ]. the slogan of all the Chambers of Com i- mere© throughout the country. V Rough roads don't worry the user; d of CLINCHER TYRES because the; d are composd of the best quality rubbe i- made by honest British labour. Trad g Imperially and buy tbe British article