MANUFACTURERS’ ASSOCIATION

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23812, 4 December 1942, Page 4

MANUFACTURERS’ ASSOCIATION

ANNUAL MEETING

REHABILITATION OF SOLDIERS

A plea for the expansion of the building industry as the one appearing to possess the greatest possibilities for the rehabilitation of soldiers was made last evening by Mr A. M. Hollander, in his presidential address to the annual meeting of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association. Mr Hollander also emphasised that the development of the electrical industry was worthy of immediate attention and that there were great possibilities in the development of the woodpulping industry. The need for all types of buildings and houses in New Zealand was great, Mr Hollander said. In the case of housing, it was fatuous to consider this in terms of the cities only. A large number of ramshackle sheds were being used in the country as houses for the country inhabitants, and this applied to small villages as well as to isolated farms. As for the towns and cities, the need was urgent to abolish the slums only too evident in all the main centres. Moreover, the lag in housing construction for years past and the rebuilding of old houses provided a vast potential undertaking for the employment of thousands of workers.

Traversing the many products reouired in building—timber, cement, bricks, many forms of hardware, paint, and other materials, Mr Hollander enumerated the many industries involved in building, furnishing, and equipping houses and other buildings. Each of the items, he said, called for the services of large and small industries, skilled and unskilled workers, scientists, artists, organisation, and administration. It was useless, however, to talk of building until there were plans for a building scheme, involving the number of houses to be built each year, a comprehensive range of designs to suit each locality, the full material requirements of these houses down in black and white, and the preparation of blueprints and the assembly of materials ready for action. He urged that preliminaries should be dealt with immediately;

Long-term Policy

Mr Hollander said that plans should also be made immediately for a largescale electricity development scheme, capable of employing many men in the building of the plants i and the bringing of the power to where it was needed—-a long-term policy, but one which would pay great dividends. New Zealand was bountifully blessed in sources for the development of such a scheme.

The wood-pulping industry was also one for which a long-term point of view was needed, he said, but which demanded immediate investigation. The industry depended on earth, timber, water, and the right climate, all of which the Dominion had. Science was the factor in the use of these ingredients to obtain pulp, which would be the basic material for hundreds of subsidiary industries. He suggested that the Rehabilitation Council might set about obtaining the services of a team of New Zealand scientists to investigate and analyse the resources and frame the necessary plans. The establishing of the three vital undertakings mentioned, he said, would not only go a long way to provide new opportunities and new diversities of employment for the soldiers, but would also help to develop New Zealand on a sound basis, the greater utilisation of the natural resources.

Election of Officers

The following officers were elected: President, Mr A. M. Hollander; vicepresidents, Messrs W. A. Bascand and B. J. Masters; treasurer. Mr D. Hoare; general committee. Messrs E. Adams, A. Bartrum, E. D. Brown, H. B. Duckworth, H. C. Govan, H. R. Lake, T. H. Lawn, F. N. Lawrence, H. Lee, S. H. Maddren, W. A. Pattispn. C. S. Peate, F. C. Penfold, W. H. Price, L. Stevens, J.. W. Thomas, H. C. Urlwin,

R. H. Webb, A. M. West, L. B. Miller. S. L. Wright; associate ’ Messrs A. W. Beaven. D. V. Wilson, H. Bradley, A. C. Maxwell, C. Sapsford, F. L. Hutchinson, and Woolf; trade group members. Mess J. A. East. H. A. Ford. S. H. Tb°mas, C. H. Vernon, L. J. Wise, andß.Mynre, Messrs S. P. Godfrey and Comp* ll ' were reappointed auditors.