HIGH STANDARD MAINTAINED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 137, 22 March 1948, Page 2

HIGH STANDARD MAINTAINED

, British Agricultural Machinery

EXTENSION OF MARKETS “Since I have been in New Zealand I have heard some suggestions that there may have been some cuts in the quality of British goods manufactured since the war. I want to state very definitely and certainly that this is not the case,” said Mr Edward Burgess, of Gainsborough, England, in an interview in Ashburton this morning.

The change over from war-time to peace-time industry certainly presented some problems, and some goods, in the first months of peace, may not have been quite up to pre-war standards. However, all British goods are now up to their normal high quality, Mr Burgess continued. “The change-over era did not affect the quality of the heavy engineering equipment in any way. We are aware of the high reputation that British machinery carries in your country, and we are zealously guarding that reputation.” Mr Burgees is the technical director for Marshall, Son and Co., Ltd., manufacturers of the Field Marshall tractor, which also controls the old-established firm of John Fowler, Leeds, Ltd., which is in the same line of business and manufactures the crawler type of tractor. Mr Burgess is also technical director of this firm. In the course of an extensive business tour he has been in India, and came almost direct to New Zealand. He will later spend two months in Australia, prior to returning to India.

The purpose of his visit to New Zealand is to ascertain how the machines already shipped here are operating and how they fit local conditions and also to assess the size of the market, with a view to deciding whether the company's activities can be extended. During the war the company was engaged 100 per cent, on munitions making, and it was completely converted back to normal production in about IS months.

Dominion Markets

“We are very anxious indeed that we should, as manufacturers of agricultural machinery, also extend our markets to the dominions,” Mr Burgess said, •hind we are concentrating at the moment on Dominion markets to the exclusion of all else, particully in Australia and New Zealand.”

The economic circumstances following the war had given them a wonderful opportunity to become predominant on the Home market, Mr Burgess added, and to a large extent to expand in* such markets as New Zealand and Australia. A great amount of money had been spent on plant, equipment, and development since the end of the war, and this was analogous to many British companies since the war. Jn some respects at any rate, he said, they had in some measure satisfied the more pressing needs of the home market. and, owing to circumstances at Home, were turning their attention in a big way to Hie dominions. ‘•'Britain is coming up rapidly in production,” Mr Burgess continued, “and we think in regard to our own particular lines of equipment that we should be ably fully to satisfy the New Zealand market as New Zealand’s needs, set against our own productive capacity, are quite of the same order.” Mr Burgess said that he was most impressed with the way everyone in New Zealand was doing everything possible to help Britain. He had had a. wonderful reception, and had been amazed at the expressions of good will and the desire to help Britain. There was no sign of any improvement in the food position in England, he said, and the food parcels which were being sent so generously by many people and organisations in the Dominion were much appreciated. He believed that they were well and wisely distributed. Reverting to the subject of production, Mr Burgess said he felt that the man froom the workshop or industry who normally took the responsibility was getting his teeth into the job, and lie thought, too, that the working man was in far better heart and more willin to work hard than was usually believed. ' f Lack of Materials “The chief deterrent to production.” he continued, “is the sporadic supply of materials, and it cannot be expected that any man will keep hard at work when Jiis materials do not come freely to hand.” He added, however, that he was sure with the upward trend in production of coal and steel, they would not only show a higher overall production, but a higher man-hour production as well.