STATE IN INDUSTRY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 April 1938, Page 9

STATE IN INDUSTRY

““ADVICE TO NEW ZEALAND. IRON AND STEEL VENTURE. Reference was made in a recent editorial in the “Melbourne Herald” to the New Zealand Government’s proposals for the establishment of an iron and steel industry in the. Dominion. After reviewing the history of State entreprise in Australia, the newspaper said: “The reasons for Government failures are many, but are soon apparent to those who give the matter study and thought. New Zealand Ministers and members of Parliament would do well to examine the history of iron and steel in Australia.

“Iron and steel production is a part of the fundations of industrial wealth and national power. The Dominion’s ambitions are, therefore, natural,” the editorial stated. “They recall a momentous controversy in the first and second Australian Parliaments. The Barton and Deakin Governments proposed to offer a bonus for iron and steel production to stimulate an industry then fighting for life against the maladies of industrial infancy. Labour proposed that the Government itself should take up the business. Parliament decided to leave the undertaking to private enterprise, granting every facility fox- production within the Ministerial power. EXPERIENCE AT A PRICE. “At that time Australia had comparatively little experience of Government ownership and training. During the following years it acquired more than enough to prove that the Parliament’s decision was a sound one. States, as well as the Commonwealth, entered upon pretentious industrial and trading programmes. The Western Australian Government, led by Labour enthusiasts, established several factories, and after heavy losses and acute public dissatisfaction, was left with a loss of something more than £2,000,000. “The Holman Government of New South Wales entered into Government industries wholesale, and in the same way piled up wreckage which had cost millions. Queensland spent millions upon squatting properties, and established Government butchers’ shops with the idea of giving the people cheap meat. It lost more millions even than New South Wales. The Commonwealth Government established a shipping line. It had every advantage, but had to be almost given away after losing about £15,000.000. HUGE DEBT INCREASE. “The Governments showed that as industrialists and traders they could make almost anything except working expenses, let alone a profit. They added scores of millions to the national debt, and the losses are still accumulatng because we are still paying interest on the dead capital. Where the Governments failed private investment has conspicuously succeeded. The story of iron and steel production and manufacture in Australia, as led by the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, is one of consistent growth in industries which equip the country for defence and provide the people with employment. The iron and steel industry is still young, but it directly employs about 15.000 workers and distributes each year considerably more than £4,000.090 in wages. "The subsidiary industries which iron and steel have brought into existence are of corresponding value. Foi' instance, the Broken Hill Proprietary owns a fleet of six ore-carrying ships, and, in addition, its iron ore provides freight for a score or so more.”