INCREASE SOUGHT IN PRODUCTION

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22661, 16 March 1939, Page 12

INCREASE SOUGHT IN PRODUCTION

“FALLING-OFF CAUSES DISQUIET” ULTIMATE OUTCOME OF IMPORT RESTRICTIONS WELLINGTON, March 15. Speaking at the annual meeting of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, the Minister for Industries and Commerce (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) said that the Government was striving to increase production on the part of every section of workers, farmers, and manufacturers because unless there was such an increase, the Government would be unable to achieve its ideal of greater health, happiness, and prosperity for everyone irrespective of class or occupation. There had been a falling-off of production and export values which had caused some disquiet, and there were reasons for these things, said Mr Sullivan. For three years, for instance, he had been trying to induce wheatgrowers to provide all the wheat for New Zealand’s needs. Growers had done their best to respond, but neither they nor the Government could control the weather, which had been persistently bad and had prevented the realisation of their objective. Similar factors applied to some extent to the falling-off in dairy production. “Problems to Overcome” New Zealand had some big problems to overcome in prpduction—among them animal ana plant diseases, land deterioration and erosion—and the Government was laying itself opt to try to find a solution. Mr Sullivan added that he v/as confident that the ultimate outcome of the import licensing system would not be to reduce the total volume of trade with the United Kingdom, though there would probably be a change in the kind of goods imported. In the long run the policy of building iiD Iqcal industries would probably mean even greater trade with Britain, but in raw materials and plant instead of the finished products. The general increase in employment in industry, he said, had a tremendous effect upon the lives of the young people leaving school. Industries which showed an expanding number of employees included clothing 1088, sawmilling 359. furniture 338, electrical engineering 257, and printing and publishing 250. “We must look to the manufacturing industries to provide employment for, our neople. The expansion of manufacturing has not been confined to any one centra It is general throughout the whole Dominion,” the Minister concluded.