OUR INDUSTRIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 998, 14 June 1930, Page 6

OUR INDUSTRIES

A Noble Example

LORD BLEDISLOE LEADS THE WAY

Dressed in New Zealand-Made Clothes

WHEN their Excellencies, Lord and Lady Bledisloe, visited Wanganui this week they set a splendid example of practical support for our local industries. The Governor-General wore New Zealand-made clothes and boots, even his necktie being of local manufacture, while Lady Bledisloe’s costiime was of local materials woven from New Zealand -wool by New Zealand operatives.

The members of the Farmers’ Union who entertained the Vice-Regal party at afternoon tea were greatly impressed by this striking instance of satisfaction with our New Zealand products, and it must have reminded them of Sir Charles Fergusson’s stirring farewell appeal, when he impressed on one and all the urgent need to build up the wealth of the country by keeping its productive industries busy, and Rady Alice Fergusson wore a frock made of New Zealand material as she waved farewell to the Dominion. Touring the country our GovernorsGeneral are enabled to get a much more intimate knowledge of our various industries than the average New Zealander does, and are enabled to form a true estimate of the quality of our products in watching them being manufactured, and so are brought to realise what a source of wealth they should be to the country. It is amazing how many New Zealanders fail to realise the important part our manufacturing industries play in the prosperity and development of the Dominion. The fact that oi)* manufactures

Yet we are importing millions of pounds worth of woollen and leather goods annually, a |j of which could he made here from our own superior materials by our own trained artisans. The call for everyone’s support for our local industries is not only one of patriotism and sentiment, but is backed by the solid merit of quality, workmanship and good

add nearly £. 100,000,000 every year to the wealth of the country is not realised by many people.

In the production of this wealth £60,000,000 worth of materials are used each year, and 84,000 breadwinners are employed in over 5,000 registered industrial plants, the buildings and equipment of which have nearly £70,000,000 capital invested in them. Our manufacturing business is no longer an insignificant factor in our productive life, but an important and vital asset in our progress as a nation. We grow the best of wool in the world, and our skilled operatives in our up-to-date woollen mills can weave the finest of materials from our golden fleeces. If those products are purchased by Lady Alice Fergusson and Lady Bledisloe, our own loyal New Zealand women need have no hesitation in following so excellent a lead. It is the $ me with our New Zea-land-made footwear. The hides and skins grown in New Zealand cannot be excelled for quality, and when made into boots and shoes by our own skilled workers they provide us with footwear ■which satisfies the most

fastidious both for appe trance aaii service.

In the Auckland district alone have 27,000 breadwinners employed in our manufacturing industries earning £5,600,000 a year ir. wage’s and producing £32.400,000 werth of goods a year. Every purchase of import** goods means less work ard less wages for those local workers, .1 loss in the spending power of the community and less openings in ou- own induW tries for our own children. With unemployment rife and so manv families feeling the pinch of a hard winter, we cannot afford to send our work out of the country and allow our own industries to languish while imported goods continue to pour in.

The prosperity of our manufacturing industries is entirely dependent on the goodwill of our local buyers, whose purchase money goes either into ihe pay envelopes of our New Zealand workers, or pays the wages of foreign workers in some far-off land, often employed under a far lower standard of living, with longer hours and lower wages than our own industrialists enjoy.

It is the plain duty of every true citizen of New Zealand to follow the noble examples set us and heed the repeated urgings cf the wisest of guides, our Governors-General, who have nothing but our national good at heart and whose one desire is to see us a prosperous and flourishing little country.

Let us concentrate on building up our own sources of wealth by choosing our own made goods whenever tbe occasion arises. We have the satisfaction of knowing that we cannot get better value for our money and that every shilling spent in the purchase of New Zealand-made goods is staying in New Zealand to help develop our own industries and employ our own workers.