N.Z. INDUSTRIES.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18970, 7 April 1927, Page 8

N.Z. INDUSTRIES.

A PROTECTION ADVOCATE. THINGS WE MIGHT DO. (THE PRESS Special Service.] j AUCKLAND, April 6. But for certain artificial obstacles, the chief of which was tariff. New Zealand could become a prosperous industrial country, according to Sir Amos Nelson, a well-known Lancashire industrialist and cotton manufacturer, who, after a tour of Australian States and various parts of New Zealand, arrived from Rotorua yesterday. "Take cotton as an instance," said Sir Amos who mentioned that his firm was arranging to start two cotton mills in Australia. "For this industry the New Zealand climate is J ideal, and there is no natural reason why it could not be established under the happiest conditions, but no manufacturer could possibly consider it unless there was some measure of protection The Australian climate is not so suitable, but the Government there seems willing to offer almost any inducement to projects for the development of secondary industry," Asked what duty would be expected before the cotton industry could be established in New Zealand, Sir Amos replied that the rate would have to be 30 per cent, at the least. That, of course, would be temporary, he continued, and would be maintained only until workers were fully trained in spinning and weaving, which would take from 18 months to two years. Workers would be selected either from persons with experience with looms, or from boys and girls straight from school, who would be trained in the work. He thought there was also a great opening for the manufacture of artificial silk in New Zealand, and he was keeping it in mind during the progress of the tests which were at present being made in British laboratories respecting the possibilities of this industry. Sir Amos believes that a policy or building up secondary industries should go hand in hand with the country's immigration schemes. "You are getting a fine type of immigrant, especially those from the public schools, or brought here under the Church schemes," he observed, "but it is no use bringing people to the country unless there is work for them." "Looking at the side issues of the question," Sir Amos continued, "it is a mystery to me that a country which uses such a vast quantity of lorries and motor-cars has not itself gone, in for their manufacture, instead of importing them from outside, and mostly from America at that." The enormous amount of rolling stock and fittings required on the railways alone, he thought, would form the basis of a sound industry.