DOMINION MANUFACTURERS.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20259, 30 July 1937, Page 6

DOMINION MANUFACTURERS.

The Minister of Industries and Commerce has replied promptly to the statement made by the secretary of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Association regarding Dominion manufactures and apparently timed to coincide with the return of the Prime Minister from abroad. Mr Sullivan said that the critics had selected “ the morning of the arrival of the Prime Minister to publish their outburst of alarm,” and he commented on “the melodramatic language” in which the statement was couched. It is evident that this te the commencement of a campaign for higher tariff walls, and it will be necessary for those already adversely affected by rising costs to study the matter seriously and take whatever steps are necessary to protect their interests. Fortunately the matter is one for facts and there should be no attempt to cloud the issue. Much probably will be made of the growth of imports. In the first six months of the current year they increased by £5,860,000, but in the same time exports increased by £7,900,000 and the Dominion cannot have oneway trade. And, before any comparisons of value can be made with regard to imports and exports, it will be necessary to analyse the imports.

Many items of import are raw materials necessary for local manufactures. These items, foodstuffs and articles not made here must all be set on one side before the actual total of manufactured goods brought into the Dominion can be ascertained. And, in any case, the volume of imports last year was well below that of pre-depression years. In 1929 the total stood at '£48,735,000 and last year at only £44,260,000. The years of depression saw merchants reduce their overseas commitments on a drastic scale, and that must have created shortages that sooner or later had to be made up. Costs of manufacture have advanced, but this is not the only country affected in that way. In most British countries —and the bulk of the imports, 73 per cent, last year, come from British countries —costs have advanced. The only comparison in this respect that would carry weight would be one showing that costs had increased locally at a ratid exceeding that of the other units of the Empire. It will be the duty of those who are seeking higher protective tariffs to show that they have done all that is possible to counter higher costs by increasing efficiency. It has been stated that, during the depression, British firms seized the opportunity to overhaul their plant and machinery, improve their methods and generally prepare for the time when trade was again active. The consumers have to pay for high tariffs and they will certainly want to know to what extent the increases are to protect industries with out-of-date machinery and uneconomic methods. These issues are not at all likely to go by- default. The financial stability of the country depends in the first place upon the economic basis of the primary industries. Developments in any way likely to add to their costs of production must adversely affect the community. The spokesman for one group of manufacturers stated a few daws ago that imports were threatening the industry, and it has since become known that only a few weeks ago it was impossible to find two skilled operatives for that very trade. The Minister has complained that “surprisingly little definite information” has been forthcoming from the industrialists, but something very convincing will have to be produced before the consumers, and especially the primary producers, will endorse any proposal to make the barriers to trade any higher than they are are at the present time.