Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 1942. INDUSTRY AFTER THE WAR.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 1942. INDUSTRY AFTER THE WAR.

QN a number ol: questions practical and helpful observations were made bv the Dominion President ol the baimeis Union in his address to the annual conference of that organisation in Wellington today, but his expressed ideas on the possible development of industries in this country alter the wai weic somewhat doleful. The future of New Zealand, Mr Mulholland declared in the part of bis observations here referred to, is bound up in its natural resources, and any attempt to follow a policy of development contrary to what those natural resources dictate must end in disaster. We are a country very poor indeed in industrial raw materials. Our great natural advantages he in the production of grass and trees, in both of which we excel. It is obvious, therefore, that any attempts to make New Zealand a great industrial country are absurd. . . . Entering the reservation, that he did not mean that no industrial development was' possible, and that our aim should be to promote that development in the usage of those things in the production of which we have natural advantages, Mr Mulholland went on to argue that if we are to develop industries in the category thus indicated —largely the processing of field and'forest products—our costs will have to be on a level which will enable us to compete with the world, and; — Either we will have to work much harder, and much longer hours, or we will have to work for very much less money wages —probably a certain amount of both. As a whole these contentions must be summed up as a queer blend ofrt.he obvious and the entirely fallacious. Adhering to some of the tenets he has laid down, Mr Mulholland evidently must hold that the story of the recent and remarkable development of manufacturing industry in Australia, for example, is one of disaster. It is improbable that he would find any reasonably well-informed person in any part of the Commonwealth to agree, with him. It is a familiar fact, too, that the most highly organised industrial countries in the world are engaged largely in the manufacture of imported materials. The questions thus opened up are wide and far-reaching, but it certainly is possible, while avoiding any unwise optimism, to envisage a much better and brighter industrial future for New Zealand than Mr Mulholland has suggested. His survey is perhaps more remarkable for what it leaves out than for what it includes. For instance he made no mention, of the fact that the Dominion is possessed of developed and potential resources of hydro-electric power that are almost, if not quite, unrivalled in the world. Another point, perhaps as important, which Mr Mulholland completely ignored, is that by far the most important constituent in most manufactured goods is not materials, but labour. It is of course true that labour is much cheaper in some other parts of the world than it is in New Zealand, but that is far enough from meaning that this country can hope to manufacture only what cannot be manufactured more cheaply somewhere else. To a large extent our choice is not between manufacturing goods or buying them more cheaply, but between manufacturing them or going without. We can import goods, and pay for them, only to an extent measured by our available trade surplus, but when that process of trade has been carried to its limits, as of course it should be, it would be a suicidal and criminal policy to let labour and other factors of production stand idle, with labour supported by a dole, rather than manufacture further goods. In order that we may utilise to the full our total powers of production, some measures of positive protection and of import selection no doubt will be essential in the post-war period. It may not be easy to determine this policy in its details, but it must be hoped that in any case the assertion of outworn and discredited economic theories will not be allowed to prejudice the industrial development and future of the Dominion.