DRASTIC CHANGES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 November 1941, Page 7

DRASTIC CHANGES

DUE TO WAR CONDITIONS POSITION OF MANUFACTURERS. FOSTERING OF INDUSTRIES. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WAIRAKEI, November 18. “We as people have not escaped the impact of war conditions, and as manufacturers also we have been obliged to adjust ourselves—at times under great difficulty —to drastic and farreaching changes. In fact, I feel safe in saying that the past year has seen a greater transformation in the manufacturing structure of this Dominion than any othei* similar period in its history,” said Mr C. V. Smith (Dunedin) in his presidential address at the opening of the annual conference of the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation. “It is true,” he added, “that to some extent the ground-work of these adjustments had been prepared before the war by the New Zealand Government’s policy of strict import control, but the war and the consequent dislocation of our external trading position have unquestionably been chiefly responsible for the great change which is now to be observed in the manufacturing industries of the country. “Though import control was not introduced for the purpose of fostering manufacturing industries —otherwise it would have been introduced in 1935 and not 1938 —it has done several things, all of which have a bearing on the future. It has given work to thousands of people in New Zealand. It has given the manufacturer an opportunity of improving his plant and of laying out his factory economically, knowing that the market for his goods was there, and that knowledge has in turn enabled him to improve the quality of his article. The shortage of goods has thrown upon him the responsibility of manufacturing goods that he never thought of manufacturing before and the experience has been of immense value.”