SECONDARY INDUSTRIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 282, 28 November 1925, Page 18

SECONDARY INDUSTRIES.

(To the Editor.) Sir—May I, through your columns, draw attention to the irrelevancy of Mr. Coates' comparative figures of the secondary industries. There have been so many changes in process, so much variation ir. costs of materials, Avages, etc., since the Christchurch Exhibition, that honest comparison, without detailed examination, is not possible. If, for instance, the printing trade has turned over largely from hand-work to the linotype in the interim, the public should be reaping the benefit. If more up-to-date methods have been introduced, cheaper processes discovered in any particular trade or in the aggregate, if cheaper power is available, a casual comparison extending over twenty years is not likely to be worth much. If increased protection has been afforded to secondary industries in the meanwhile, this also must affect the position. It is inconceivable that any honest-minded New Zealander should not wish to see all our industries, primary and secondary, improving their positions. ln the business of the nation, as in other businesses, the question may, however, arise —to what extent is,it advisable to carry unpayable departments at the expense of more payable propositionsT If it can be shoAvn that the expense of maintaining a Bteadily losing department is seriously affecting the well-being of some other department, which has to make up the losses, statesmanship and good business will tackle the question. New Zealandors should seek to knoAV the truth, and knowing it, should face it. The 1925 Year Book gives the figures for the grouped industries from 1919 to 1923, and from a national viewpoint they are far from reassuring.—l am, etc., KERI KERI.