“MAKE OUR OWN LOCOS”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 174, 13 October 1927, Page 16

“MAKE OUR OWN LOCOS”

MEMBERS PRESS CLAIMS KEEPING MONEY IN COUNTRY (THE SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. Fis considered by some members of the House of Representatives that the Government is not doing sufficient to support the New Zealand manufacture of railway locomotives. The Prime Minister said in the House this evening that orders had been placed with a firm at, Thames, and demands had been anticipated for some time aheadr so that unemployed men would be absorbed. No tenders were called, the Government giving the New Zealand firm the work to keep the money in the country. This did not satisfy Mr. T. W. Rhodes, member for Thames, orr Mr. M. J. Savage, Auckland West, both of whom wished for more engines to be built in New Zealand. Mr. Rhodes said that only three were in the course of construction at Price Brothers at the Thames shops, and they would be finished by Christmas. Every engine built in New Zealand meant a saving in duty to the country of many hundreds of pounds, and the wages paid amounted to approximately £I,OOO an engine. Mr. Savage asked why it was that the Government was bringing locomotives from abroad while our own men walked the streets, and New Zealand factories were not working at capacity? Mr. Coates: Would you have us turn the whole railway development programme over to Price Brothers? Mr. Savage: * I do not suggest putting the railways into the hands of any one firm, but I want the Government to give to New Zealand industry what conveniently can be handled by it. If this firm turns out a locomotive as good as anything in the world, why should it not get the work?