SECONDARY INDUSTRIES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10615, 14 June 1920, Page 5

SECONDARY INDUSTRIES

RELATION TO PRIMARY “A WISE PROTECTION TO FOSTER LOCAL INDUSTRY.” (Special to tho “Timor.”) AUCKLAND. June 12. Mr M. F. Hills, president of the Industrial Association, made sonic interesting observations on the desirability of fostering the secondary industries of the Dominion at the last meeting. During a lengthy dissertation, largely devoted to tho need of reasonable protection, the speaker, among other thing?, said: “From time to time letters and reports appear in the papers showing general antagonism to oar secondary industries. This attitude is most largely held in the country. At the same time, an undcr-current of antagonism to Dominion industries exists in the towns also, and with people who ought to know better, A abort time ego it was demonstrated that if a certain industry wore, set up in New Zealand, Instead of the raw material being sent overseas and imported back ra its manufactured state, employment would bo provided for a population equal to that of Dunedin. “LITTLE NEW ZEALANDERS.” T ‘So woefully out-of-date aro some 'Little New Zealanders’ that it was actually said that we did not want this extra population, and that in itself it would be of no advantage to the State. Granted decent workers, working under good and fair conditions. granted also Now Zealand making those things which she ought not to make, wo should soon have a splendid people hero numbering ten times our present total. With the right economic, proportion of primary and secondary industries, New Zealand would not only he the mast prosperous country in tho world, hut the best, taken all round, to live in, Wo need not build up huge towns, with all their attendant horrors, as older countries have done, but should spread our industries all over tho country, creating numberless small centres.- With a much greater population this would bo possible. i “SECONDARY WOULD STABILISE PRIMARY.”

“All industrialists admit that New Zealand is, and should he, first and foremost an agricultural and pastoral country, but it should not ho this only. Wo should build up a strong, healthy, and vigorous sot of secondary industries to work in with tho primary. Tho two kinds would help each other. A few people assert that the primary are now unfairly helping tho secondary," but I Hate boldly that a good system of secondary, industries, cron .with protection, would vastly help and stabilise tho primary. It is the only sane system for Now Zealand. We must stem tho tendency to stake everything ou our primary industries and to belittle our secondary. England made a god of her secondary, wo aro "apt to make on© of our primary. Bo well assured that future generations will suffer if we, in our haste to grasp at immediate wealth, neglect to build up a wise, all-round community , “BUGBEAR OF IMPORT DUTY.”

I have little doubt that many agree with the statement that the most, vainable to us of alt trades is Dominion trade. It is only whoa the bugbear of import duty comes in that tho howl starts. As in advocating secondary industries I pjeaded only reasonable industries, so in championing Protection I urge only a reasonable tariff, imposed by a reasonable and intelligent Government. lam not arguing for excessive, unintelligent, or freak tariffs. Protection sometimes increases the retail price of a commodity to tho consumer for a shorter or longer period, often a shorter, but it docs not necessarily increase that price permanently. One great factor in bringing back to normal, or nearly normal, tho temporarily raised price of protected goods, is that Protection allows industries to increase and prosper so 'that capital flows tdjjjprds them, thereby enabling them to import tho most up-to-date machinery, to manufacture on&.thc largest and fastest scale, and henco to sell at an over-decreasing price. “ENCOURAGE LOCAL INDUSTRIES.” Protection can safely be trusted to set up keen local competition, which again keeps down selling price. But Protection over and over again brings prices below those obtaining under Free trade by tho simple process of enabling local industries to come into existence. and to grow to such a- size that they can manufacture at below that at which it costs the foreigner to import into the country under Free Trade. In 1891 America raised her duty on tinplates, but the price fell and continued to fall year by year until it reached 2.2 cents, tho exact amount of the duty only, and while in 1804 local tinplate manufacture was then only 1000 tons, ten years later it was 400,000 tons. Steel rails wore protected in America in 1870, and by 1005 the local price had fallcmSO per cent., with increased employment to 180,000 workers. Something similar is tho case with iron nails, beet-sugar, silk, reapers and binders, saws, scythes, carpets, and many other things. Wise Protection fosters industry so that work is found for all, wages advance, and capital docs not flow out of tho country to enrich other nations, but rather remains at homo to enrich its own. and to bo put into still further industries at an cver-ohcapeu. ing rate.”