Industry and Import Control

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22805, 2 September 1939, Page 14

Industry and Import Control

No special credit; is due to the Minister for Industries and Commerce for his frank admission that the want of sterling funds to meet the national requirements, “ particularly of raw “materials, is unquestionably acute”; the facts are too obvious. It is a pity, however, that the Minister did not make the effort to continue as candidly, when he came to defend the system of import control. He would have had nothing to lose. It is some time since any other Minister ventured to suggest that the 'system was adopted because the Government judged the time'to be ripe for a long-planned measure, and 'not because it was driven to it. Even the Prime Minister, presenting the Financial Statement, let his old plea go and said, plainly and precisely, that the Government’s public works policy, without a parallel increase in production; had caused imports to rise and sterling funds to fall away, apd that it had been “to meet this position,” accentuated by capital exports, that exchange control and import selection were introduced. But Mr Sullivan said this: “If it were not for the excep- “ tional shortage of oversea funds, the diffi- « cutties that had arisen would not exist, and “the control system would work like a well- “ oiled itnachine.” The control system, that is, V/as not devised —hastily jmd badly—" to. meet “ the position ” defined by the Prime Minister; it was a very smooth and efficient system, originated to “ buiid up New Zealand,” which: the sterling shortage Kas thrown into disorder; If the Minister for Industries and Commerce ever again feels impelled to talk so recklessly, J it would at least be tactful of him hot to contradict flatly his own leader’s most recent and most carefully measured statement. As for the material- facts, it is - perhaps sufficient to observe that, while Mr Sullivan insists that Government control can “ ensure that the.

“things the country needs most will receive “first treatment,” assurance on this very head is most conspicuously'lacking. The president of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association has said bluntly that manufacturers are facing the drastic curtailment of their production next year, and has asked for evidence that the factories are not being “sacrificed” to Government import requirements, other than those directly for defence. Why, in short, should Mr Sullivan himself feel obliged to confess that imports of “ raw materials particularly ” are under a heavy check?