MANUFACTURERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 136, 6 December 1939, Page 4

MANUFACTURERS

ANNUAL CONFERENCE

TRIBUTE TO MINISTER

OPENING SPEECHES

Manufacturing industries fubm all. parts of New Zealand were represented at the annual conference of the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation, which was opened at the Conference Hall of the Centennial Exhibition at Rongotai today. . i About fifty delegates and guests, pre- ; sided over by the president of the (federation, Mr. H. B. Duckworth (Christchurch) heard the opening speech delivered by the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon. D. jG. Sullivan, and later the • president delivered his presidential address. Mr. Duckworth, in extending a wel- | come to the Minister, paid a tribute of high praise to Mr. Sullivan for the untiring efforts he had made throughout his public life to foster the developjment and expansion of the manufactu tiling industries of the Dominion. The I Minister had the welfare of these, mii dustries thoroughly at heart, Mr. Duckworth said, and manufacturers were under a debt of obligation to him for |his persistence and energy on their behalf. " < "The manufacturers of New Zealand are only on the threshold of development," the president added. "They, have an opportunity which they have never previously had in history to prove themselves capable of bringing the country to a better state of wealth and prosperity." , THE SHADOW OF WAR. "We meet today in the shadow of a great catastrophe," declared the Minister, before undertaking a comprehensive survey of'New.Zealand manufactures. Tlie fact that the country j was at war would be in aIL minds, and this circumstance, combined with the proximity of the Dominion's Centen-! nial year, would be an induceinent for everybody, in whatever calling, to throw themselves info the country's cause and do their part to bring about that peace with honour which was the goal and the ideal of all who had the welfare of the country and the Empire at heart. In this task those associated J with industry would have a special part to play. "PERFECT FREEDOM." "You will conduct your: discussions in perfect freedom," Mr. Sullivan went on. "Whether the Minister is present or not you are free to express your opinions freely and frankly—a convincing proof of the democratic spirit wnich prevails here today. It-is gratifying to us to realise that we possess this freedom, for it is this democracy and this freedom that we are fighting today to obtain. Our realisation that we have it with us will be an added inducement to all of us to throw%ur whole efforts into the struggle in which we and the Empire are now engaged." VISITORS. Among those,who attended the conference as guests of the federation were Mr. Justice Hunter, Mr. H. L. Wise, *of the'- Government Price Tribunal, Messrs. It. W. Boulter, H.M. Trade' Commissioner, W., W. Mulholland, president New Zealand Farmers*. Union, Captain S. /Holm, president" Chamber of Commerce, Messrs. L. J/ Schmitt, secretary Department ,of Industries and Commerce, G; A. Pascbe, factory controller, Walter Bromley, Industries Committee, G. H. Macktey, General Manager New Zealand Railways, Young, Director-General P. and T. Department, Dr. E. Marsden, secretary ' Department of Scientific and. Industrial Research, and Mr: C. E. Critchley, Australian1 Trade Commissioner.

Apologies for absence were received from Sir H. Batterbee, High Commissioner for the United Kingdom, Mr. W. F. Bull, Trade for Canada, and Mr. f. T. Spears, immediate past president of the federation.