INDUSTRIALIST’S VISIT

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21966, 15 December 1936, Page 13

INDUSTRIALIST’S VISIT

SIR HARRY M’GOWAN COMING TO NEW ZEALAND

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LONDON, November 21

One of the most important industrial visitors to Australia and New Zealand this year will be Sir Harry McGowan, chairman and managing director of Imperial Chemical Industries, who left London on November 11 on his first visit to Australia and New Zealand. Sir Harry's visit is strictly business. He is a London director of Imperial Chemical Industries of Australia and New Zealand, a company having very wide interests in the Antipodes, and of which Sir Lennon Raws is chairman. The company, which has its headquarters in Melbourne, was founded in March, 1929, absorbing such wellknown and established firms, others', as Nobel (Australasia). Ltd, and Brunner Mond (Australasia), Ltd. From the outset the policy of the company has been to fester the development of Commonwealth production, its success in which direction can be seen by the development of Australian manufacture of leathercloth, explosives, safety fuse, and lightning fasteners. Moreover, it has recently opened plant for the manufacture of shotgun and .22 ammunition, and is at present spending upwards of £1,000,000 with the object of making Australia independent in the matter of alkali supplies. The company has interests also in the manufacture of chemicals, paint, and synthetic resins, fertilisers, ammonia, and non-ferrous metals.

It is to strengthen the connexion between the two organisations that Sir Harry McGowan is visiting Australia and New Zealand. He is the second chairman of Imperial Chemical Industries, succeeding the late Lord Melchett in 1930. He was born in Glasgow in 1874 and joined the staff of Nobels Explosives Company as an office boy. Twenty-six years later, in 1915, he was the board of the company became its managing director in 1918. On the amalgamation of British explosive and allied interests into Nobel Industries, Ltd., Sir Harry McGowan became the first chairman at the age of 44.