LOCAL INDUSTRY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10611, 9 June 1920, Page 4

LOCAL INDUSTRY

Tho end of the war has found the cause of local manufacturing industry in this Dominion in a considerably better position. Whereas before the war the conditions were against anything like the full development of local manufacturing industry, it is a fact that now the adverse side of the conditions has been reduced, if not entirely 'eliminated. Tho British manufacturer no longer enjoys the advantages of lower wages and cheaper power. On the other hand, the lobal manufacturer is helped by the considerable increase in tho sea freights. Before the war he enjoyed the advantage of having hut one freight toface, tho export freight on the finished article, while his oversea competitor fuc&d the freight half round the world on the raw material and the freight back on tho finished article. This advantage is increased by tho rise in sea freights all round, while the handicaps of lower wages qnd cheaper power, which neutralised the above advantage, have disappeared. At tho same tjme, ho still enjoys the advantage of tariff protection. Before "the war the conditions were regarded as prohibitive to any further development of an industry holding its own with tariff help". Now the conditions can bo said to bo quite favourable to that full development of manufacturing industry, which has long been tho dream of the patriotic local industrialist. These remarks apply chiefly to the woollen industry, for which tho Dominion produces the raw material in great and increasing abundance. There is no reason why that industry should nob aspire to a vast export trade. And tho opportunity for bidding for such a trade Is now accentuated by the , disorganisation brought about by tho war in the manufacturing industry of many countries. Tho opportunity is good for tho investment of money in well-organised attempts to give the export trade a substantial foundation and a good start. Capital is -flowing in this direction in England, over one hundred millions having been recorded for company flotation in a single year, as is shown by some figures published in another column. The recent fall of juices has interfered with these enterprises. These, however, attest tho British faitli in British industry. The improvement in our competitive situation should give our people at least an equal faith, more especially as the call for capital for now developments is not based on the liopo of the permanence of abnormal prices. In other words, it does not follow that because the British investor has gambled unwisely, the local investor should not put 1 his money into safe business propositions.