SECONDARY INDUSTRIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 July 1938, Page 6

SECONDARY INDUSTRIES

DEVELOPMENT IN DOMINION ~ VIEWS OF. IMPORTERS’ BUREAU “The consuming public and the primary producers” says the Bureau of Importers (Inc), “will be very concerned at the statements of the Hon W. Nash in connection with the fostering of secondary industries. We have repeatedly produced ample evidence showing that many of New Zealand’s present. and suggested secondary industries are definitely uneconomic. Tariffs have succeeded in shutting out foreign goods, and now there appears to be a determined effort on the part of local manufacturers to stop imports of goods from Great Britain. A typical example of this is revealed in connection with the construction of State Houses when the contractor., was compelled to remove a piece of imported timber measuring 18 inches by 15 inches. Uneconomic secondary',industries 'cannot be self-supporting, but must have the protection of high tariffs, the folly of which is evidenced in..the United States, where there is more unemployment than anywhere in the world.

New Zealand with its limited population and still more limited facilities for export trade could never produce sugar beet economically, the cost of production being tremendously high and the outlay for the necessary machinery being out of all proportion to the extent of any potential market for the manufactured article, The manufacture of sugar beet has been a failure in England, U.S.A, and Germany, and because of the highly refined sugar we have become accustomed to in New Zealand, would never be a success in this country. “The present tariff has practically prohibited importations of wallboards, and has resulted in almost a complete monopoly to one local manufacturer. It is high time the public of New Zealand were considered by the lowering of the tariff on wpllboards. The repercussion of these ‘terrible tariffs’ is clearly instanced in the case of fruit juices which Mr Nash considers might be manufactured in New Zealand. Owing to the excessive duty, 20 per cent on British, and 40 per cent, plus surtax on foreign), New Zealanders have been denied the advantages of fruit juices, which are available in other countries at a purely nominal charge, but are restricted in their sale in the Dominion because of the prohibitive tariff. It would be far more to the credit of Mr Nash and the Government generally were they to devote their energies, to the restoration of the productive land, which went out of cultivation during the depression, than to sponsor uneconomic, ill-advised, secondary industries.”