SECONDARY INDUSTRIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 286, 3 December 1931, Page 23

SECONDARY INDUSTRIES.

Value to the farmer. . : wei . to "Fair Play." At the pre--1,1 • in every country there are rjnt tn? e ; e[l in the manufacturing l; ff cr <??"? in rcC ent years, so New i.ulustrf X 1 ries not peculiar in Zcaland ; ,: : inj ustl^ rom 1918 . 1919 to 1020tli» "SHSSajj value of the secondary ' ,J f JsSeased from £18,100 000 to ind Xffl)o The value of materials ; ' :3 ' wSer imported or produced HW St included in these figures. IJCa S.i-y industries in the course of WSBS& Provide the New Zea,h 11 dJryfarmer, paetorahst, orchardhßd £Lt-- "ardener, agriculturist, ist, ro tiiner 3 and fisherman with a millions of pounds' IOCa L of their produce yearly besides v;or Llr the workers and their that T ;" onsumc for their bodily susfainiiie? difference in value bet9STiur total primary productions tWe iveSu the "Monthly Digest/' and «« S a for the actual exports shows lhe Snder varying from about thirty A f SmfflioM a year, based on export inference that this turned locally. "Fair Play" is itSSly con-ect in saying that with- ° /nur exports we should be bankrupt ° U a £ months. Had it not been for '\ Xdary industries (even such as fjS), tending to keep down the 1 Total--of our imports, we would SbSn bankrupt long ago. Our overJltions have been so serious even fSe last ten years, which are SllyUed upon as the; m ost pros, , S Whicll we are ever likely to know 1 remember, that each year we have J fleed to borrow on the English rL tobay our interest, so that our SsUld'have been kept down by the oneratibfis of our secondary industries, bSinspitoofhightarrffs they have *i heen' able to uo so. J.ne Jin is." that-' whilst the farmer STbiea- sheltered from the blast- £ effects of our system of arbitratiln the secondary industries have been "addled with high wages, short hours, excessive overtime rates, and preference o unionists/ whilst the training of artisans has' been curtailed by restriction of apprenticing. The trades unions haVethiß been constituted close corporations with a limited membership ineffideiit workers have been sheltered and the standard of efficiency and discipline reduced to a minimum, so thai no tariff wall yet devised can offset tht handicaps imposed on our own indus tries. Does "Fair Play" imagine for on( instant that the manufacturer finds any satisfaction in being placed af sucli a disadvantage, in competing with cheap •foreign labour?- : -If the farmer sells his produce at world parity he also produces it wittfi-laboiir ■' at world parity. The farmer pays his. quota towards the national revenue through the Customs tariffs, so doeLthe.industrial,, transport, and wmmerciar community. The farmer has been assisted with, finance, rebates on railage, rebates on petrol tax, and is now'suMdised By way of maniires, labour, and local ratH;"-'- assisted' in" times of, " stress to meet r Ms" mortgagee, compen-: B atedfor disease^.cattle, and even these, do not complete the' list of benefits enjoyed by the- farmer. But who pays for it? If -the farming community pays a third <of the total Customs tariffs; it is as much; as it does. Farmers pay. no income taS; the only other general tax they do pay 'is a- proportion, of the unimproved laid tax, which, . for the TvMe Dominion, totals only £1,501,000. .vv. •; ■ : "I -DEMOS. :