BOOTS AND BUTTER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1047, 11 August 1930, Page 11

BOOTS AND BUTTER

“USE LOCAL MANUFACTURES’’ MR. JORDAN’S PLEA Speaking at the Manukau Yacht t Club’s annual social on Saturday even- j ing, Air. AV. ,T. Jordan. M.P.. strongly ' advocated a vigorous campaign to de- ! velop local industries. The past few years, he said had fully ; demonstrated the fallacy of depending I entirely on our primary products, and 1 the Dominion had now reached a point ; in its history calling for a resurvey of j the whole position. It was being held by some, he con- ! tinued. that our salvation lay in liberal preference for Empire goods, and that if we wished to establish a better mar- ! ket for our butter in England. we should buy more English goods. Those ! who took this view pointed out that ■ the Northampton boot operative could buy more of our butte.r only out of wages earned by making more boots for us. but this was true only up to a 1 certain point. A better plan, he said, would be for New Zealand to make its own foot- I wear, and instead of shipping its hides ; overseas, to turn them into boots o- | the spot. This would not only give i employment to our own people, but 1 considerably relieve the community of i the burden of charitable aid In such circumstances, the New Z< mland farmer would increase his sales at his own door instead of in a market j 13.000 miles away. The transport charges on his products and on the imported English boots would thus be saved. Later on, when local trade expanded and our own boot operatives became fully employed, then would be the time to relieve England of her unemployed. “First create employment for ou»own bootmakers,” he concluded, ‘‘and then bring out the Northampton men to where they can eat our butter in Auckland. side by side with our own people ’*