NEW INDUSTRIES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 71, 6 January 1936, Page 7

NEW INDUSTRIES

THREE BIG PROJECTS. POSSIBILITIES INVESTIGATED. (Par Press Association.) CHRISTOHURCH, January s'. "Proposals to establish steel works, coal distillation plants, and a plant for the manufacture of aluminium have been considered at recent conferences, held by members of the Labour Cabinet and heads of departments," said the Minister of Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) in an interview to-day. The proposed steel works, ho said, might cost '£3,000,000 and employ 1000 men, and they will be situated at Onakaka, where there arc already extensive iron works.

The Pacific Steel Company had already spent £IO,OOO or £12,000 on prospecting and assay work, in the steel manufacture project, said Mr Armstrong, and the prospects for the success of New Zealand steel works seemed good. He had been told that the company was confident that the industry could be made one of the biggest in New Zealand, employing up to 1000 men and producing all the steel the Dominion required. He had been informed by experts that if the new works provided only half the steel used in New Zealand they would justify the capital outlay needed for their construction. This outlay had been estimated at £3,000,000. Before anything could be done, said Mr Armstrong, something would have to be decided about the part the State should play in the control of the new works, Some interested persons thought that if it assisted private enterprise in such an undertaking, the Unemployment Board; should be entitled to shares in the company, and others, with whom he himself agreed, thought that the Government itself should take over the work. Coal Distillation. Another industry, the possibilities of which were being investigated, was the extraction of by-products from coal as well as coal distillation for petrol. A success had been made of these processes in other countries where the coal available was not nearly so good as in New Zealand. The flax industry was already receiving Government aid at the rate of £4 for every ton producer, said Mr Armstrong, and it was possible that more might be done to improve this industry by the Government. The subsidy at present sufficed "to keep many of the mills open. Hemp was at a very low price, but it would be unwise to allow the industry to go out. The Government was assisting at present a Wellington engineer who had invented a new stripper, which, it was claimed, would revolutionise the industry. Another new industry to which thought was being given was the manufacture of aluminium. The Government had been giving more time and thought than had been given in the past to plans for assisting secondary industries, realising that along this course was the only likely solution ot the unemployment problem. A huge public works programme would only postpone the evil. In the meantime, of course, the Government would purj sue a more activo public works policy.