A VISITOR’S VIEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 26 November 1927, Page 4

A VISITOR’S VIEWS

BURDENS ON INDUSTRY. IMPRESSIONS OE NEW ZEALAND. WELLINGTON, Nov. 2-1. Mr Cyril Edward Lloyd, now visiting New Zealand, is a director of Lloyds Bank, and a director ot the Cleat Western Railway, and he has been Gnionist member ot the House ol Commons lor Dudley since 1922. Sine I9IS he has been chairman of N. 1 lingley and Sons, Ltd., Netherton Ironworks. A mail does not hold such high positions in the world of engineering, manufacturing, and railways, not to mention polities, unless he possesses the essential qualities, hut -Mr Lloyd is the reverse of a limelightcr, and it is not easy to induce him to speak lor puhliciL\ as to Australian and New Zealand affairs, lie pleads that he is too recent an arrival to become a critic. Nor does he believe in any undue intervention from one part ol the Empire in the domestic affairs of another part of the Empire. And as to British or Imperial allairs, why, he asks, should he speak publicly on them when the Secretary of State for the Dominions is already in the country:' BORROWING. Those contentions appear to he unanswerable. hut Mr Lloyd was induced to talk on a few subjects under such reservations as the above remarks imply. The interviewer raised the subject ol borrowing in New York hv Australian Governments, and asked whether it this practice were continued, and were extended to New Zealand, the result would be to diminish Dominion imports |,-out the Old Country, and unfavour-

ably to a licet trade between the Old Country and the Dominions.

Mr l.loyd replied that in no circumstances would the Old Country attempt to dictate to any Dominion as to where it should borrow. His argument amounted to a contention that the matter was OM e for economic adjustment, mainly automatic. Tin* p.'cscnt economic conditinn ol Britain was a factor, and si was that of New Zealand or Australia. While some of the borrowing countries were taxing themselves in order to h ir row. I. vita in was heavily taxing herself in order to pay off. At the same tiim* the principal industries in Britain, and the principal industry ot the Domin-

ions (agrii ullure) had been going through a difficult time. blit, however difficult the situation. Britain would b glad to meet Dominion borrowing provided it was not over-borrowing. WHAT BRITAIN HAS DONE. * -1 1 seems l i me." lie added. ' that both von and we have been faced with

the < oiisequences ol the war. lon. as

well as we. have been digesting postwar conditions, and getting ready for a fresh advance. That the Iresh advance will be made in due course thcio (■;(!) he mo dollht. lhe general post-

linn is sound. Public i onscionsno.-s in the direction of buying and selling within tin- Empire is growing in ilritnin. It is to ho hoped that you realise here how lu.lly we have laced postwar difficulties. and (o what, an extent we are winning our way through them, particularly in an industrial sense. Me liave had to pay post-war taxation —wo are paving off our debt and at the same time we have had to keep our

manufacturing practice up-to-date, and to keep n'.ir works efficient without denying the working man the improved standard of life which he is seeking. Notwithstanding all this, otir costs of production have come down, and our competitive position with relation to the Continent is certainly improving. \Yc have competed with the lower wages and the debased currencies of the Continent without either inflating our own currencies or reducing our wages. Our last annual payment to the sinking fund is sixty millions, which annual sum. if applied to our pre-war public debt, would have extinguished it in about ten vears.

“At the same time, heavily taxed as we are to maintain that rate of sinking fund, our exports are showing a substantial advance as compared with the period dominated by the coal strike. T suppose that if we were not doing so mueli to repay our borrowings, our level of taxation would not he so high above that of other countries, and our manufacturers would have had a more free hand, hut, as I say. we are winning through. N.Z. RAILWAYS.

“In this country 1 have been agreeably surprised at the standard of your train service. Considering the physical difficulties of the country through which you have to build, I think that the service given is of a remarkably high character.''

The visitor listened with some interest w hen told of the high capitalisation of flic Now Zealand State railways, of how the losses on certain political or uneconomic lines had been transferred to the taxpayer, and of a certain tendency to regard railways as developmental rather than self-supporting. II is onlv comment was that in the Old Country developmental works would lie jiaid for out of revenue, and not out of borrowed capital. PROTECTION.

Questioned a.s to Australia’s highly protected inauufacturois, Mr Lloyd suggested that the high protection issue turned on whether the industries, having found a footing, continued to exist by their own efficiency or by virtue of tariff help alone. On mention being made of phenomenal growth of Holden's Motor Body Building Company, an Australian development of the last seven years, he at once ventured the opinion that this industry was supported by much more than a tariff. He had •been through its Australian works, and a.s an engineer he had been impressed with the organisation and technical methods, such as steel pressing. I which was tip to the host English or American .standards. Although making many types of body. Holden’s would compare favourably with American firms, which, through concentrating on two or three types, secured the benefits of mass production. Under high protection there would no doubt be industries that were on a competitive and unartificial basis, and there would be other industries of which this could not he said.