INDUSTRIAL PLANNING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 277, 22 November 1934, Page 6

INDUSTRIAL PLANNING.

It is indicative of a new attitude towards industrial problems that the manufacturers of the Dominion are moving towards a voluntary system of national planning. As explained by Mr. Allum, the objects are to set up a permanent Industrial (Advisory) Commission, to facilitate the co-ordination of industrial units with a view to further increasing the efficiency of manufacturing industries generally, and to apply safeguards tigainst over-capitalisation. Although the proposal for a Commission comes from the manufacturers, it suggests an analogy to the Commission of Agriculture. It would be representative of both industry and the State, with the .Minister of Industries and Commerce as chairman, would be endowed with powers to co-ordinate productive units, to direct the expansion of industry, to eliminate uneconomic units, to remove overlapping, and generally to carry out the functions of industrial "rationalisation." All this involves setting standards of efficiency, and experience in Britain, especially in the cotton industry, has shown hoAV difficult that is. Fortunately, New Zealand's problems are simple by comparison, and should be much easier to solve. True success is measured by an industry's ability to improve its position without squeezing either the worker or the consumer. Reductions in costs should not threaten standards of living, nor should the elimination of plants lead to monopoly prices.

Industrial trends in New Zealand are vitally affected by the Ottawa policy and its later developments. At Ottawa much emphasis was laid upon efficiency of production in relation to tariff levels, and New Zealand pledged itself to reduce its protective duties to "such a level as will place the United Kingdom producer in the position of a domestic competitor." The recent tariff revision was carried out in the lig'ht of that undertaking-, and a margin was fixed which the Commission considered wide enough to secure to Dominion manufacturers as much of the local market as can be supplied by goods which are economically produced, yet narrow enough to preclude inefficiency, uneconomic extension or undue profit-making. Directions were indicated in which production costs could be reduced by more co-ordination within industries, and the Commission's views doubtless have had their influence in bringing manufacturers together. The future of their plans depends partly on the measure of support they are able to gain within their ranks, and partly upon Britain's attitude towards Dominion exports. Any restriction in the British market would strengthen the local movement to develop secondary industries.