WAR AND INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1917, Page 2

WAR AND INDUSTRY.

HOW JAPAN MET DFFICULTIES.

LOSS OF GERMAN SUPPLIES. A comprehensive study of the position of Japan's chemical industries lias just been published by the Department of' Agriculture and Commerce (states the J,"pan rimes). A severe panic prevailed in Japan's industrial irclcs when the ine.vi'-bility of a world war was realised by them, and a gloomy tone .was in evidence everywliere, b>it now, though' the. supply of raw materials and machinery is not maintained satisfactorily and industrial activities are hampered, the reverse is the case with many lines of industries because demand for substitutes for European goods has steadily increased, not only in the domestic market. lint abroad as well, and in, conjunction with the sale of war requisites has favorably influenced those circles. Those lines have not only gained a good market overseas, but by increasing their income have been enabled to stabiliso their financial position. New lines of industry have also been initiated in this country with success. Particularly some chemical industries quite recently introduced from Europe are offered a splendid chance to make their position secure against aftcr-tlic-war competition from foreign manufacturers. The chemical market was in a panic H'hen the war broke out, because the majority of chemicals required here were imported from Germany. The Government took nil •'inergeiicy measure immediately after the outbreak of the war, including the ban on exports and t>lie encouragement of domestic production. The experiments in manufacture were conducted at the Government laboratories in Tokio and Osaka, and the results have been periodically published. Carbolic acid and salicylic acid have also been manufactured with fair success by these laboratories. For the manufacture of those lines of chemicals which cannot beiniade except under official protection the Government lias induced business men to initiate two companies on 'the promise of bounties. If those concerns satisfactorily push on with their enterprises there will be forty descriptions of chemicals pladed on the market.

Glycerine is also manufactured successfully by a company floated under official protection with the .Tn.pan DyestufT Company and other two chemical companies. When the company completes its plant the output will reswh loflft tons a vear.

A BOOM IN GLASS. In t'he glass market, which, it must be noted, has quite recently seen its own manufactures on sale, gyeat liveli ness has been evident since the war began, because British India, the South .Seas, Australia, Great Britain and other countries have all become buyers on account of the stoppage of supplies from German nu.l Belgium. The Asalii Glass Com,pain, which was the only firm of window glass manufacturers in Japan when the war began, then commenced to work to its fullest capacity, at the same time enlarging its plant ipparently witli tlie intention that the foreign market formerly monopolised by those European countries would be captured permanently' for Japan. When the company completes its plant its annual production will rise to 700,000 cases. Plate glass al=o is bein? made by the Union Glass Company along with the Asnhi {Slass Company with 'fair success.

CAPTURING GERMAN TEAT®. Celluloid manufacturers, who wore distressed with the sustained depression before the \v.ar. are now bies-sed yith great prosperity, because Germany, the Greatest supplier of these goods, stopped her export simultaneously with the uothrenk of war. and many countries in Europe and Asia are now sending their orders here. Japanese manufacturers who have orders from Circat Britain. France, Russia, America, Australia, 8011 th Seas, British India, China and other countries are energetically enlarging their plants, but their combined output is still too small to meet all the requirements from those binders. The paper manufacturing industry 1 is as a whole active, and tlic export of Japanese paper is reviving to some extent. Big mills turning out foreign paper have had a good lime, and as there was only a limited supply of raw materials the prosperity was enjoved more fully by those which had tl.eV own puln mills. The war's good inilueucs Iruc been best felt by the pulp manuf irturer-,, and when their plants are completed Japan may have a sullkient suppl.v of pulp from those mills in Hokkaido and Karafuto. If the manufacturers be well prepared to meet competition from foreign producers after the war, the vexed problem of the paper industry's independence can be practically solved,