Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1938. INDUSTRIES AND PROSPERITY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 December 1938, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1938. INDUSTRIES AND PROSPERITY.

immensely important contribution would be made to general national prosperity in this country if its people could be induced always to extend a reasonable preference to goods produced or manufactured within its own borders. On that account the strongest support should be given to the intensive campaign promoted by the Government to stimulate the expansion of the Dominion’s manufacturing industries. The campaign is to be inaugurated by the Governor-General (Lord Galway) in a broadcast address this evening, and in their own interests, and from a wider standpoint, the people of the Dominion should be very willing to give heed to that address and to those by the Prime Minister and others that are to follow.

The best possible method of fostering local industries, with all that they offer in the way of enlarged production and a broadening of the field of satisfactory and profitable employment, is to support them voluntarily. Tariffs, subsidies and other special measures to assist the development and expansion of industries al] have their disadvantages. They tend to raise prices, and sometimes to provoke contention with other countries with which it is desirable on all grounds to maintain unimpaired understanding and friendship. 'Artificial protection tends, on the whole, to impart to industries something of a hothouse character and to make them dependent on repeated doses of the same medicine. No such weaknesses develop where industries are spontaneously given assured support by the consuming public. New Zealanders should have no difficulty in perceiving the wisdom of giving support, in these conditions, to their own manufacturing industries. It is a matter of the members of a family giving intelligent heed to their mutual welfare.

Nothing unreasonable- is suggested and certainly no sacrifice is demanded, in asking New Zealanders to give all the support they can to New Zealand industries. No one can doubt that the expansion of thriving manufacturing industries in this country will benefit all sections of its population. Neither is it in doubt that, much will be done to foster that expansion if all New Zealanders will habitually make a point of ascertaining first and foremost whether New Zealand goods are available to satisfy their requirements. It is not suggested that imports should" be boycotted. It is entirely desirable that we should import, freely' in proportion to our export surplus. Of late, however, we have been importing much more than, our export surplus warrants, and this not only creates serious problems of international exchange and financial adjustment, but tends needlessly and in a serious degree to deprive New Zealanders of employment.

. Much may be done to remedy this state of affairs if the people of the Dominion will concentrate on the purchase of New Zealand goods where these are satisfactory from the standpoint of quality and price. It is a peculiar fact, and. one calling urgently for attention, that New Zealand goods are by no means always given by New Zealanders fair consideration on their merits. In the extent to which this consideration is denied, we are working foolishly to our own. economic undoing.

Many kinds of New Zealand goods are unsurpassed in quality by competing imports from any part of the world.' Even when our local goods are dearer than corresponding imports, the difference in price often is well worth paying. All that people are asked to do js to set aside prejudice and. take fair account of what they are offered for their money. In the extent to which this is done, the internal trade of the Dominion will be broadened and it will become progressively easier for manufacturers to establish higher standards of efficiency, by modernising and extending their plants and in other ways, and. to enlarge the field of productive and profitable employment. At the same time, our problems and difficulties of external trade will be lightened. In one way and another, these developments will confer far-reaching benefits on all sections of the population of the Dominion. MAKING THE ROADS SAFE. <<r pWo HUNDRED lives would be saved in New Zealand each year,” the Minister of Transport (Air Semple) has said, “if all road users were cautious and courteous.” That brief but impressive statement epitomises the purpose and the appeal of Road Safety Week. In this Dominion-wide effort road-users of all kinds—motorists, cyclists, pedestrians and others are being asked primarily to think. Lack of thought is the cause of most road accidents. It may be supposed that no one, looking fairly at the facts, can doubt that the caution and courtesy for which the Minister appeals are splendidly worth while as a means of averting deaths and injury on our. roads. If, however, there are any individuals so strangely constituted as to be to this appeal, a general improvement in standards of road conduct would make it possible to single out and deal with those who are not to be weaned by persuasion from recklessness and folly. The practical value of the road safety campaign is affirmed and emphasised by those who are experienced in the control - and regulation of traffic. For instance, the Wellington City Chief Traffic Officer (Mr L. S. Drake) has said that to some extent it may be true that the effect, of the campaign may be a flash in the pan, but that even so the effort is well worth making. It can be stated with certainty, on experience of past campaigns (Mr Drake added), that there will be an immediate diminution in all types of accidents during and for some time after the campaign, but what we all have to do is to extend that period when everyone on the road is conscious of the direct responsibility which rests on him or her to play safe.

The campaign should be regarded, not as a momentary effort, to reduce the number of road accidents, but as a call to all concerned to awaken to the realities of the situation and to. play worthily their individual parts in a continuing national co-operative effort to avert the loss of life and suffering that result from careless, bad and discourteous behaviour on the roads. The state of affairs to be aimed at, and which all should be eager to bring about, is one in which care and courtesy will be exercised constantly by all who use the