LOW LABOUR COST

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 184, 6 August 1934, Page 5

LOW LABOUR COST

JAPAN'S ADVANTAGE.

COMPETITOR WITH EMPIRE,

CONCENTRATING ON INDUSTRY

"It is no use looking to the East as a market for our butter. TTTe Japanese don't want butter; they want rice and fieh. They are not educated up to the standard of living at which they look for butter," sa'.d Mr. J. J. A. Howie, of the firm of Abbot, Armstrong and Howie, merchants, of Auckland, who returned to Auckland on the Aorangi this morning Mr. Howie has been away from New Zealand eight months, during which time he visited, among other places, France, Germany, and Switzerland.

"Industrially there is no doubt that Japan threatens the British Empire, , '; said Mr. Howie. "She is concentrating upon industrialising all her big towns, and with her np-to-date methods of production there is not much chance of Britain or her Dominions competing successfully with her. It is in the labour costs that Japan has a big advantage. The standard of living is much lower for her workers, the wages paid are a mere trifle compared with what we have to pay, and in Japan the workers put in longer hours. We cannot hope to competo successfully under such conditions. "To-day all the countriee are sellers, buyers being scarce, and the problem is a difficult one to deal with. High tariffs do not produce the desired result, and I think that if the New Zealand Government would make a gesture to some of these foreign countries and offered to reduce tariffs a Tittle on condition that they take a stipulated quantity of our goods, it would be more satisfactory. It is not much use relying almost solely upon Britain. At present she is busy bolstering up her own trade." Asked if he had seen anything of the motor cars which Japan claimed she would be placing on the market at £50 retail. Mr.-Howie said he had not, but he had been told by a manager of one of Mr. Ford's factories in America that the Japanese were producing good tyres.