TENTH BIRTHDAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 207, 2 September 1936, Page 10

TENTH BIRTHDAY.

GENERAL MOTORS, LTD.

MR. SEMPLE'S TRIBUTE. "A REAL SERVICE TO N.Z-" (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON', this day. Ten years ago General Motors, Ltd., established a new industry—the assembling of motor cars in New Zealand— and it was able this afternoon at its extensive factory in Petone to turn off the assembly line a smart Chevrolet car, No. 37,375, representing its achievement numerically to that moment. Planning is second nature to the General Motors officials, but it meant just a little slowing down of the process to enable the Minister of Transport, Hon. R. Semple, to see the finishing touches of the dark red car which was the centre of attraction.

Before the Minister and a large number of spectators reached the head of the line they saw frames being placed in position, then the springs, the engine and undergear. Next came a completely finished body to be dropped on the frame, and at the end of the line the assemblage merely had to watch some testing and wiring up of electrical fittings before car No. 37,575 was driven off under its own power, to the cheers of hundreds of workers and General Motors dealers who had been invited from all parts of the Dominion.

The visitors were impressed with the great organisation so smoothly working, and when a short celebration took place in one of the spacious bays of the glass-sided works Mr. A. Schoftsld, Mayor of Petone, expressed the local appreciation of the company's enterprise in establishing a big industry, which gave so much employment. It was an example of mass production wisely applied to the general benefit. New Zealand Workers. Mr. G. C. Seers, managing director of General Motors (New Zealand), in welcoming the visitors, said that when the plant had been established ten years ago New Zealanders had adapted themselves to the new job with the pioneering instincts of their ancestors, and they were building'motor vehicles which compared favourably with those built in any other part of the world. General Motors was an international concern, which believed in the expansion and encouragement of local industry. It had its plants for manufacturing and assembly in 24 countries. The staff of the New Zealand organisation was composed almost entirely of New Zealanders, who comprised 98 per cent, while the remaining 2 per cent were also Britons.

In the last two and a half years, representing a period when the economic depression was passing, New Zealand customers had spent slightly over 4J millions on the company's products. 1 Of that sum £2,481,000, or 55 per cent of the . total, had been spent in the Dominion on import duty, dealers' commissions, local purchases of materials, freight salaries 'and (not least) taxation. This left £1,250,000, or only 28 per cent of the total turnover, which went to America, and it comprised payment for all the American material and components, plus a return for the proportion of investment in the Nfw Zealand plant of the parent company. In more popular terms, Mr. Seers explained the economic division as involving the retention in New Zealand of 11/ out of £1 spent -by New. Zealanders with the company, while 3/5 went to other parts of the Empire, and only 5/7 to America. Huge Pay Roll. There was a pay roll at the works of 675 men and women, and in ten years the company had paid out in salaries and wages in the Dominion £900,000. This was a growing figure, for every working day they were now paying out in salary and wages £670. All that, concluded Mr. Seers, was not possible without intelligent teamwork and co-opera-tion from the staff, and that the company had received, as well as the encouragement of the Government, which recognised the part General Motors had played in pioneering a new industry.

Mr. Semple congratulated the management and workmen on tlie achievement he had witnessed, and declared that the company had rendered a real service to New Zealand. It had brought to the country scientific and skilful knowledge of the best way to make motor cars, and he was delighted to hear that New Zealanders had been found competent to apply their skill in a way which showed that they compared favourably with any workers in the world. Whether it was .American capital or not. General Motors had contributed something very real towards the' accomplishment of an ideal of developing New Zealand industry. ' The 'presentation of nearly 50 gold and silver, badges to members of the

staff, in recognition of continuous ser vice up to periods of 10 years com pleted the programme.