The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1930 MADE IN NEW ZEALAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 871, 15 January 1930, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1930 MADE IN NEW ZEALAND

V ITTLE by little the doctrine of favouring New Zealand-made products is spreading among politicians, and the Hon. A. J. Stall worthy is the latest to join in deprecating the unnecessary use of foreign manufactured products. There are unfortunately a large number of these which can never be made in New Zealand, or, at least, not until we have a much greater population to support them, and give the manufacturers scope for the mass production methods and quantity output which are among the most important factors in modern industry. But there are others which can profitably be made in New Zealand, thus not only exploiting local labour, but also providing a firm market for local materials.

One of the unfortunate features of opposition to .New Zealand’s aspiration to become a manufacturing country in her own right is the laboured assertion that she is too far distant from the world’s markets. Mr. H. R. Jenkins, M.P., is one of those who stresses this disadvantage. Yet the success of Mr. Jenkins with his own product, millring machines, is a splendid example of what New Zealand enterprise may accomplish; and surely Mr. Jenkins would not suggest that he alone has the requisite acumen to develop markets overseas? Though New Zealand is at the present time at the remote end of the world, she is strategically located for the exploitation of its greatest potential market, the countries bordering the Pacific. It is to these, that the world’s greatest movements of population are advancing. With the spread of enlightenment and the growth of population in the great land areas around it, the Pacific rather than the Atlantic will in the future become the highway of great argosies.

Instead of building and planning so that New Zealand will, as time goes on, be equipped to take its proper place in the scheme of Pacific economic affairs, the legislators of this country in the past have tended to exhibit a strange sense of inferiority and hopelessness. The one way to assure for the Dominion its full share of potential future is to secure the establishment of its industries now, working them up from small beginnings, instead of waiting about until some other more enterprising nation has captured the field. Strangely enough, New Zealand has not only exhibited a shrinking modesty on its own account, hut has even promoted the enterprises of its rivals. As Mr. Stallworthy pointed out in his address to the New Zealand Master Grocers’ Federation, the investigator at every turn encounters foreign goods supplanting New Zealand commodities. The chief source of foreign goods in New Zealand is America. Mr. Stallworthy pointed this out, but might- have added that the success of American products on the New Zealand market is partly due to the alert marketing methods of the American industrialists, and partly to the eminent suitability of many of their products. The American motor-ear has won itself a preeminent place, from which at the present time there are few signs of its being deposed. Furthermore, the larger American motor firms are themselves helping New Zealand labour conditions by having a very large part of their construction work done in New Zealand. No doubt the imposition of protective tariffs was one of the factors that induced them to do so; but their success is a striking answer to the argument that New Zealand labour is incapable of producing a satisfactory finished article. This and other ridiculous arguments have, of course, been levelled over and over again at those who are seriously engaged in the business of promoting New Zealand industries. The Sun has always been a consistent advocate of the encouragement of local industry, and is pleased now to notice that not only politicians, but also a hitherto contemptuous section of the Press, are now conceding their support to the movement. This can only mean one thing—that public sentiment is swinging toward a demand for the New Zealand-made product. And when public sentiment backs up a movement, that is a good assurance of its ultimate success.