PROTECTING LOCAL INDUSTRIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 102, 2 May 1930, Page 6

PROTECTING LOCAL INDUSTRIES.

May I beg the favour of your columns on behalf of the Coach and Motor Body Builders' Association of New Zealand to place Mr. A. Donald's claim to the Parriell seat before tho public? I have juet returned from our conference, which was held in Wellington ou the_ 19th and 21st of last month, and it was decided to reaffirm our policy by asking Parliament and the Government to say that a , definite percentage, which is small and reasonable, of all cars coming into New Zealand shall be without bodies and we shall build these bodies in New Zealand. That would mean a splendid industry for New Zealand. It would mean, the steady employment of a very large number of men (probably a few thousand) all the year round. To show how. utterly the Reform Government failed to help the employers and workers of New Zealand, let me inform your readers that in 1928 a deputation, which numbered about thirty-two or thirty-three and came from Auckland, Hamilton, Napier, Wellington, Petone, Christ church, Timaru and Dunedin, waited on the Hon. Downie Stewart asking for assistance on these lines. He listened to all we said, and then he thanked us. Beyond that we never heard a single word--never received a letter—and nothing was done. ' I will not dwell on this, further than to say that the Reform Government by that action plainly showed their preference for foreigners to their own employers and workers in New Zealand. It constituted, in the minds of a great many, a betrayal of New ZealanJers. I had the pleasure of a short conference with Mr. A. Donald, and, in my judgment, he is the man for Parnell, and should receive -the support of every elector who wishes his country to recover its prosperity and happiness. He will work to secure a better day and to bring in an era when both employers and workers will enjoy the business and the work which Reformers' have continued to send to a foreign country which scarcely buys a pound of New Zealand" butter. Mr. Donald is a New Zealander, a scholar, a lover and friend of New Zealanders, and one who in every way will work to restore prosperity, and should therefore he supported. WM. THOMSON, Editor, "The New Zealander," the Official Organ of the C. and M.B. Builders' Association^