ENGINEERING TRADE.
DOMINION CANNOT COMPETE WITH OVERSEAS. .. (special to the ebess.) DUNEDIN, Juno. 17. Tho position of 'tho'engineering trades in New Zealand. is 'said' iib.t, to be good. Tho manager of one-of--the leading ■ engineering linns, whezjujas'ked nis ■opinion, said it is quite, true things aro uad in JDunodin, and have been so' for' tho past twelve moiitns; "it means auditions to the unemployment list, .fpr local firms havo had to put off "men,", he continued'. "The matter 'is hot so;, much one that has arisen'from the clays of tho gold dredges, but the fact that they were in operation in Otago,-and that firms'sprang up in Dunedin to. supply their wants, has resulted in. there being many such firms in the city. To-day they are all feeling the pinch, as we .are. .Look.at the shelves of this storeroom. A year .or so ago they were crammed with engineering productions made in.New Zealand-by our own factory.'. To-day they are still crammed, but ©very shelf contains supplies of British and other imported goods." ... . . : , His summary of the position was that. New Zealand firms, had neither the machinery nor the market to enable them to produce such goods at a price that could hope to compete with, imported articles, manufactured on a mass production, basis in British and Continental factories. He referred to Buch goods as taps, brass joints, and hundreds of similar engineering fittings. They can be imported for one half and in some cases one third the. present cost of manufacture in-i. New Zealand. " ■j '■' •'. . He observed, "What can a Dominionfirm do in the face of competition of that nature? Machinery in New Zealand is obsolete : in'the- majority of cases and in any case one is-up against mass production. -Take the plumber block, for supporting overhead shafting. Supposing it costs 15s to manufacture one here. Well, we.can import ono for. almost half that amount;, •less far'less, than onr manufacturing cost and still mako a. handsome.profit. '
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Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18721, 18 June 1926, Page 16
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323ENGINEERING TRADE. Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18721, 18 June 1926, Page 16
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