Our Industries

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 940, 5 April 1930, Page 6

Our Industries

Our Auckland Homes

BUILD AND FURNISH THEM WITH N.Z. GOODS

THE and common-sense appeal made last week to tlie Rotary Club by a director of one of our largest eonstruction companies is now being given a wider circulation in pamphlet form and should rouse our home builders, home owners, and home renters to the urgent duty of supporting our home industries.

No industry in New Zealand lias been harder hit by dumping and the Importing craze than our once flourishing timber trade, and there are thousands less employed in our timber mills than there were years ago. The 6,000 now engaged are often working on short time, but if for homebuilding we used our own splendid New Zealand timbers milled and dressed by our own well-paid skilled workers, there would be work enough to keep 10,000 emploj'ees going at top speed, and make our mills humming hives of industry instead of being closed or semi-idle. That absorption of 4,000 more workers in one Industry alone would assist enormously in solving the : problem of unemployment in the most profitable and permanent way. Foreign timber, produced by alien labour, is freighted here by subsidised ships, and dumped on our wharves to keep our own workers idle, and if the home builder were to insist on New Zealand timber he would know what he was getting, and who was getting the money laid out in building his home. The iron or tiled roof can, be produced by our workers here, and wherever possible in the interior the man who builds wisely will see that his money stays here in New Zealand, keeping his fellow-workers busy. In furnishing and equipping his home the loyal and true citizen will give preference to goods made by our own workers every time, because nothing can be more foolish than to keep the

| workers of other countries busy while ; our own are looking for jobs. Having built and furnished his home, let Mr. and Mrs. John Citizen look to their wardrobes, cupboards. and store pantries. Are they filled with New Zealand-made j goods, or are foreign brands plain on all sides? No better ; woollen goods can be found than L ! the products of our own mills L from our own grown new wool. There is nothing like leather. 1 There are no imitations or trashy > fillings in a New Zealand-made , boot. And when you buy locallymade foodstuffs you know you are getting pure, fresh goods, packed 1 under hygienic conditions and under strict supervision by health and factory officials. : BEST VALUE FOR YOUR MONEY A Country Party freetrader has been arguing that the price of our New Zealand-made products is fixed by their parity with imported goods, ’ but anyone who knows how our manufacturers’ costing accounts are kept knows how utterly wrong that is, and ' that very few of our manufacturing L concerns are making as much interest on the capital invested as would be earned on mortgage or gilt-edged security. When you buy New Zealand goods there is usually but one handling and one profit between the producer and the cohsumer, and the 1 shopkeeper can always keep his sup- : plies fresh and instantly renewed by . a ring on the telephone. With imt ported goods, they pass through many hands and many agencies before they l reach the homes of Auckland, and i each handling increases the cost.

Pound for pound, and shilling tn. shilling, you cannot get better "n! fairer value for your money than you demand made-iu-New Zeal»tti goods. " ; HAPPY HOMES FOR ALL Never forget that our little Dominion can only become wealthy and prosperous by producing the wealth by our own labour from our own resources. By purchaser* concentrating on home products they are helping to make every home happy and carefree with work in abundance for all. PROVING N.Z. LEATHER EXHAUSTIVE TESTS Some two years ago, the New Zealand tanning industry showed that it possessed initiative and enterprise. i n conjunction with the Department ©* Scientific and Industrial Research it formed the Leather Research Association. the objects of which were to improve the quality of New Zealand leather, to adopt all the latest methods of manufacture, and, with the aid of science, to endeavour to solve many o* the problems connected with the tanning industry* as a whole. One of the first problems to be investigated was “What is the exact posu tion of New Zealand leather in comparison with the leather of other countries ?** In other words, “Is them justification for the contention of the public that their refusal to buy New Zealand leather is because its quality is inferior to that of imported leather?* A true understanding of the actual position would determine how the tax,, ners could best improve the quality of their products. The boot manufacturers quickly to work to verify the extremely satisfactory results reported by the Rh* search Association and are now usii4p practically nothing but New Zealand sole leather. Many Government institutions have satisfied themselves as to the quality, and. so long as the pries is favourable, will not buy imported leather. What is now required is that th« general public should give New Zealand leather a fair trial. Some have done this and are satisfied. It is the majority, however, who have yet to be convinced. To do this the persoas concerned must insist on buying a p*jof New Zealand boots or shoes equal in quality to those they have been previously buying. In the case of testing leather for repair work, this can be done by haviag one shoe repaired with New Zealand leather and one with imported leather of equal thickness, as has been done in the tests described.