POPULATION AND PRODUCTION

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24869, 8 May 1946, Page 5

POPULATION AND PRODUCTION

VIEW OF MANUFACTURERS’ FEDERATION

Two factors were limiting New Zealand’s • production, shortage of manpower and restricted local markets, said Mr J. Abel, giving evidence to the select committee on population on behalf of the Manufacturers’ Federation. From information available, those factors would prevail for a long time unless early steps were taken to arrest the decline m the trend of population he said. - Mr Abel summarised the views of the federation as follows:

“Natural increase: this requires the encouragement and support of those with families; the removal of the stigma attaching to parents with children; more houses with labour-saving equipment; and domestic help in the home (the country could absorb thousands of girls from Europe, who would come to a home in the first place and find their feet there before taking up work in other avenues).

“Immigration; there is ample scope for absorbing large numbers of immigrants in factories, and this could toe done without lowering the wage rate. There is also an urgent need for trained men who would bring with them the skill and experienced based on a background of many years. It is known that many British factories are making plans to start in New Zealand, and every encouragement should be given to them to transplant the families of their workers at the same time.

“Child immigration: The federation believes that the best citizen is the local-born citizen and that the next best is the child who is brought to New Zealand in his early years and grows up as a New Zealander. For this reason the federation strongly supports child immigration, as it believes thousands of British orphans could be brought to New Zealand and adopted in New Zealand homes without any noticeable effect on the present housing shortage. ’’