PRODUCTS, PROFIT AND PATRIOTISM

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 208, 22 November 1927, Page 10

PRODUCTS, PROFIT AND PATRIOTISM

IN view of the splendid strides made in recent years by the I secondary industries of the Dominion, there is a special public interest m the conference of New Zealand manufacturers new bemg lield in Auckland. It is the first annual conference of the- recently-formed Federation, and the activities of this body, winch has already shown itself to be an extremely live organisation, should do much toward increasing production and in providing additional employment in factories and workshops. In liis speech at the opening of the conference yesterday, the chairman, Mr. Sutherland Ross, referred to the growing need for closer co-operation between manufacturers and their employees, and also between manufacturers and retailers. He did not indicate what steps were to be taken to bring about this closer association between employer and employee, a desideratum which Mould make for greater content and prosperity all round. It might be suggested that some form of profit-sharing would prove successful in bringing about happier relationships, on the lines of Ihose systems initiated by some of the great manufacturing firms of England and America, and which have won the encomiums of leading economists, including those in the Labour Party. Profit-sharing has been found to increase output, wages and returns by stimulating endeavour, saving waste and promoting Personal interest in the work to be done, and it would be well worth while to give the system a large-scale trial in New Zealand. Closer co-operation between manufacturers and retailers is no less necessary to industrial prosperity. The manufacturers are prepared to strain every effort to produce goods of the very best quality at a marketable price if the retailers are prepared to push their sale. It is a regrettable truth, however, that in the past many retailers have shown a strange attitude toward these productions, even refusing to handle some branded “Made in New Zealand.” Their defence was that the public was apathetic in buying New Zealand manufactures when not absolutely hostile to or disregardful of them. Latterly, however, much lias been done by newspaper publicity to educate public opinion regarding the extent and quality of locally-made goods, and all prejudice against these goods should eventually die out, to be replaced by a proper pride in them and a desire to grant them preference in purchase. With manufacturers turning out the right class of goods, retailers giving them proper display and selling on fairprofit lines, and the public willing to support what is produced by its own people, there should be no fear for the ultimate prosperity of New Zealand’s secondary industries. But the public must play a patriotic part; that is the whole essence of success. “Ask for New: Zealand-made goodsj” - ■ * -fr