PROGRESS MADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 98, 28 April 1941, Page 3

PROGRESS MADE.

NEW N.Z. INDUSTRIES. REHABILITATION PLANS. (P.A.I CHRISTCHURCH. Sunday. "Although the maior portion of our time find expenditure of enemy is directed at the moment to the prosecution of the war. the Government is even now taking steps to plan for the period of reconstruction that, will come when victory is achieved." said the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan. "A Cabinet committee and a committee of heads of departments are both giving much .thought to this vitally important issue. "Plans are in preparation for the establishment of several large and important industries. The utilisation of our own woodnulp for the manufacture of paper, for example, will he one of those. This activity will have a wide-spread influence, because it will provide work for bushmen. sawmills and reafforestation, in addition to operatives required for producing paper. "We ha\ e in one year established the growing of linen flax and I envisage the time when we may well produce some of our own varieties of linen. In the meantime our activities with linen flax are all directed to assisting the Motherland. but sight is not being lost of the post-war potentialities of the industry. Steady progress is being maintained in the rehabilitation of our phormium tenax industry and in the manufacture of woolpacks. Here, too. our plans embrace still further development and I have already had discussions with representatives of the Australian Government regarding the possible export of woolpacks. "We have established new records in the quantity of tobacco grown." said Mr. Sullivan, "and I am sure we will be able to produce more and more of our own requirements in this direction. For some time I have been giving much attention to the t establishing of the sugar beet industry and the possibility is we will undertake this also. We are already manufacturing very good cycle tyres and tubes and there is no reason to doubt that the manufacture of heavier types of tyres Will be undertaken. It is included on our list. "The important thing is to ensure there will be jobs for the men when they return and that opportunities for rehabilitation are sufficiently widespread to cover most requirements."