Solving Industrial Problems of N.Z.

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 176, 15 October 1927, Page 12

Solving Industrial Problems of N.Z.

ORGANISATION NOT TARIFF MR. COATES RECOMMENDS SELF-RELIANCE (THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. INTERNAL organisation and not high protective tariffs is the direction in which the Prime Minister hopes to accomplish the solution of the industrial prablems of the Dominion, He believes that if proper care is taken and an analysis made of the different industries, it will enable them to appreciate the virtue of self-reli-ance as well as relieve the State of the duty of having perpetually to assist them through years of languishing stagnation. Mr. Coates’s views were strongly expressed in the House of Representatives to-night when he cited the case of the timber industry as an illustration of what could be done by combined efforts and stocktaking within the industry itself. When he returned from England, he said, there was a popular cry for a special sitting of Parliament to deal with the timber industry which was stated to be in a parlous condition. The Government refused because the people of this country would not stand the added cost without seeing some return for it, or at least seeing some restriction. FOREIGN TIMBER HABIT The timber industry was asked to meet the Government because it was recognised that the millers had arrived at that stage where the requirements of the demand were being ignored. Users were not being considered to the extent they snould have been, and people were gradually getting into the habit of buying foreign timber. The Government laid it down that New Zealand timber should be used as fa.r as possible and a committee which had sat on this question had done great work in seeing that this was carried out. Stage by stage the industry had been organised by the millers themselves, and the state of the timber industry to-day is such that it is able to supply people with timber grown in their own country, as satisfactory as any timber that could be imported. This had been done by reorganisation and not by tariff. Carpenters had preferred foreign timber because it was easier to work, but the New Zealand miller now could supply what was wanted. “I believe we have overcome the difficulty,” Mr. Coates went, on, “and if we stick to it, and follow the methods of organisation adopted in other countries, we will be able to use all our own timber for the work we have in hand/* And so it was with other industries, added the Prime Minister. Investigation had to prove whether the industry was being run efficiently or not. Unless our organisation was perfect, and conformed to modern requirements, the Government could not take any guarantee of those interested, that the industry required assistance to carry on. Just as sure as they were allowed to go along on uneconomical lines, just as surely would we have to pay the price in future. We could not isolate ourselves from competitive values of other countries, although he expressed the determination to maintain the high standard of living for our own people, only by industries getting together, and co-operating with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and of Industries and Commerce, could anything useful be accomplished. “All the cards must be laid on the table so that everyone can see the information that is discovered,” Mr. Coates concluded.