POTENTIAL WEALTH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 737, 9 August 1929, Page 11

POTENTIAL WEALTH

MANUFACTURES AND RESOURCES NEED FOR DEVELOPMENT (THE SUE'S Parliamentary Reporter) PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Thursday. Potential wealth lies in the further exploitation of the Dominion’s resources and the advancement of manufacturing industries, according to Mr. H. R. Jenkins (Parnell), who spoke in the Budget debate this evening. In regard to the development of secondary industries, Mr. Jenkins thought an attempt should be made to produce motor spirit from our own raw material and tar products from our coal for use on New Zealand roads. The possibilities of the wood pulp industy were emphasised, and he suggested the utilisation of streams and waterfalls which abounded in the country to provide nitrates and other products for the use of farmers and for export. The development of the fruit and vegetable industries should remove the necessity for importations of canned goods of this kind. Mr. Jenkins agreed as to the desirability of the construction of the Paeroa-Pokeno railway, and he thought the Government might yet do something in that locality. It could not do everything in one year, but he believed it was favourably impressed with the possibilities of the PaeroaPokeno line. Ha supported the Government’s railway policy on the ground that it would be of great service to farmers, particularly for transferring stock. Mr. R. A. Wright (Wellington Suburbs) said secondary industries would not help to produce money for foreign bondholders; it could only come frcTm the primary industries, and it was in that direction that we should look for an improvement of our economic position. Mr. Jenkins had stated that he favoured paying for public works out of revenue, but Mr. Wright said he thought it was agreed by economists' that capital expenditure—and public works must be regarded as capital expenditure—should always come from loan money, so that people who in the future would gain benefit from these works would he called on to bear the cost of them.