TYRE INDUSTRY

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24736, 29 November 1945, Page 6

TYRE INDUSTRY

APPEALS AGAINST ISSUE OF LICENCES

DECISION THIS WEEK POSSIBLE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 28. • The hearing of appeals against the granting of licences to manufacture tyres and tubes New Zealand concluded this morning before the Industrial Efficiency Appeal Authority, Sir Francis Frazec, who said he hoped he might be able to get a decision out by the end of the week. During the reply of Mr W. J. Sim, K.C., on behalf of A. S. Paterson and Company and the Avon India Rubber Company, objectors to the licensing of the industry, the authority said he was concerned with facts, the law, and economics. So far as the bureau had reached its findings on pure facts, he should accept those findings unless fresh evidence caused him to take a different view. As to the law and economics, he had a free hand. The issue was largely an economic one. The question of the economic welfare of New Zealand had to be approached from several viewpoints, one of which was the desirability of a balanced economy. He was not suggesting at the moment that the tyre industry was part of the balanced economy of New Zealand. His mind was quite open. He had to look at the whole question of the economics of the country. In his opinion the fact that the industry itself was economic did not cover all the economic issues involved. It was a very important first hurdle, however. Mr Sim claimed that the licensees had not shown that the industry would be economic, or that it would promote the economic welfare of New Zealand.