ONWARD MARCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 308, 29 December 1934, Page 7

ONWARD MARCH.

BRITISH INDUSTRY. MOTORS FOURTH LARGEST. CONFIDENCE EVERYWHERE. "Industrially there is genuine confidence everywhere and I predict that Britain will be the most up-to-date country in the world in the next 10 years," said Mr. C. J. B. Norwood, a former Mayor of Wellington, and managing director of Dominion Motors, who returned by the Mariposa to-day. He was commenting on the increase in confidence and welfare since his last visit to Britain, in 1931. Great Britain was one of the isolated instances among the nations of the world where the Conservative, Liberal, and Socialist elements had voluntarily surrendered party to the common cause and made a great contribution to national recovery, said Mr. Norwood. Britain had shown in many ways a desire to free itself from old ideas and customs, and give a lead to the world. He spoke of the big building programme, which was eliminating slums, and the money which was being spent on bringing railways and aviation up to date. he sum of £20,000,000 had been made ivailable for the electrification and general improvement of the railways. Cheaper Air-mail Services. Britain was committed to a sevenday air-mail service between England and Australia. It was anticipated that the service would be extended to New Zealand. "There is little doubt," said Mr. Norwood, "that if the Air Ministry, which is seized with the importance of aviation from the national point of view, ■arries out the echeme it has in mind i association with private enterprise, raetieally the whole of the first-class

air mail throughout Great Britain will be distributed by air services, and at a cost amazingly low in comparison with the present charges made for air-mail services." The motor industry, he said, had become the fourth largest in Great Britain. All the leading manufacturers had had a profitable year, and the prospects for the next season were even brighter. Taking into consideration that the British manufacturer had to pay more for steel than his rivals in U.S.A., he was doing amazingly well, having regard to the price level of the finished article. The reduction in the horse-power' tax from £1 per unit to 15/ would stimulate export, as an engine of greater power and "pep" had been developed. New developments mechanically and in design was still being made. At both the Paris and Olympia exhibitions new springing devices and the front-wheel drive were a feature. The new models would show some modification of the extreme to which the treatment of bodies for wind resistance had been carried. Problems of America. His impression of America, formed by the opportunity he had of conferring with leading industrialists, was that confidence had not been restored sufficiently to stir the nation to action. There were many anomalies in the scheme for dealing with unemployment. Taxation, which had been hurriedly levied for the relief of unemployment, was inequitable, and the funds were not distributed to the best advantage. The National Recovery Act necessarily had many repercussions, and it had been so modified that it was now only a skeleton of the original. Many of the leading American people he had met had plenty of hope, but little on which to base their confidence Ihe Federal Government had financed the banks with, he thought, some element of risk, to enable them to make payments to their customers just before Christmas, and this was reflected in a sudden business boom. "The bright star on the horizon in the States is that President Roosevelt is enlistino- the support of the leading industrialists of the country, irrespective of their political viewe, and with the "Teat national resources of U.S.A. it is°believed that this will lead to a solution of national difficulties," he concluded.