Overhaul of Industry

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 753, 28 August 1929, Page 8

Overhaul of Industry

Two Enquiry Missions Proposed

LEADERS Of industry in New Zealand are fast coming to realise that now is the time for a general investigation into industrial conditions if the manufacturing potentialities of the country are to be fully exploited. In proposing such a mission with an impartial and capable personnel, a recently-issued Government report suggests that our isolation from the great manufacturing countries of the world may have given us a false idea of our strength and a lack of appreciation of current problems.

Although steady progress has been made in the manufacturing industries of New Zealand in recent years, it has been abundantly clear in published reports and impartial surveys of the position that this progress has been accomplished largely without the whole-hearted support of the authorities. Careful study made by the Department of Industries and Commerce into marketing and marketing requirements in certain industries has served merely to emphasise the urgent necessity for a general inquiry into industry as a whole for the purpose of establishing a basis of co-operation for the producer, the manufacturer and the distributor. The Department itself, acting upon the experience. of its investigating committees, but without entering into the causes of industrial stagnation, says in its annual report that the check upon expansion in industry which has been experienced by New Zealand recently reveals the need for a general investigation throughout the whole country. SEEKING NEW IDEAS The department suggests that a mission, comprising men of wide experience In industry, finance and economics, should work within the Dominion, and that in addition, a delegation should be appointed. under Government direction, to visit England and Canada to study conditions there and to exchange views with the leaders of industry in those countries. “New Zealand manufacturers are undoubtedly desirous of keeping up-to-date in their methods,” the report adds, “and many enterprising manufacturers have already paid visits to England and have greatly benefited. New factory equipment has been purchased and new ideas incorporated, but it is felt, in the Department's view, that a well-organised delegation could, in the short period of six to eight months, make the tour and prepare a report for general publication which would be invaluable to the Government, the manufacturers and the people generally.” The extension of existing industries and the creation of new ones is given particular stress in the report, which also pays special attention to the lack of investment in progressive enter-

- prise, especially as there appears to ! be a great deal of capital awaiting ! investment. These questions, as well as those of unemployment and apprenticeship, should, it is suggested, form a great part of the mission’s investigation abroad. If the Department’s suggestions are to be executed it has first to be ascertained whether or not manufacturing industries in New Zealand are ad- | vancing or going back. Figures pub- | lished with the Department’s report | indicate that where industries have j been given reasonable opportunities of j expansion, satisfactory progress has ! been made, and in many cases locally. | made goods are building up substani tial business against heavy overseas competition. A protective tariff has enabled the Onakaka iron industry to overcome its initial difficulties, with the result that more up-to-date plant has been installed and the New Zealand product is now actually superseding the pigiron previously imported. DOMINION CAN COMPETE In running through the summarised j review of industries, one cannot fail to notice that in many directions a thoroughly organised investigation would eliminate some apparent anomalies so far as ths number of factories are concerned in relation to the general volume of output. Clothing trades have been suffering acutely, but. as the report indicates. New Zealand factories can make all reasonable requirements with the exception of special and exclusive patterns, and at competitive prices with imported goods. Reasonable protection, then, would appear to be the remedy for a state of affairs which, in some industries, is described by the department as unfortunate. A complete overhaul of New Zealand industry, if conducted along the lines as suggested by the Department of Industries and Commerce, would probably bring to light many interesting facts about our manufacturing system. It might at last prove the desirability of a tariff' board, and it would at least vindicate the system of protection, the benefits of which a committee of five experienced and impartial economists in Australia was recently unable to refute.