MANUFACTURERS’ PROBLEMS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24982, 17 September 1946, Page 5

MANUFACTURERS’ PROBLEMS

SHORTAGES FACED IN AUSTRALIA HIGH COMMISSIONER’S ADDRESS Problems faced by manufacturers in Australia—in many cases similar problems to those facing manufacturers in New Zealand—were discussed in an address last evening by Mr A. R. Cutler. High Commissioner for Australia in New Zealand. Mr Cutler was the guest of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association. The present industrial disputes in Australia were not peculiar to Australia. Mr Cutler said. It was inevitable that there would be unrest at the end of a war. People had worked hard, many of them at jobs to which they had been directed, and it was un. erstandable that there should be much dissatisfaction. It had been fcjund, however, that most former servicemen had settled down well. One or two of the industrial disputes recently had been very severe, but he thought that the severity of them would gradually peter out, and that conditions would return to normal. • Manufacturers in Australia, as in New Zealand, faced shortages, •Mr Cutler said. Power was hot in sufficient supply to cope with all the demands of industry, and except in Tasmania new hydro-electric schemes did not seem practicable because of the level of the rivers. Raw materials, too, were in short supply, and the country had an insufficient supply of labour — female labour in particular. Many women had been directed to industry by manpower controls during the war, had found the controls irksome, and had left their jobs as soon as the controls were lifted. Others had gone back to their pre-war occupation of looking after a home. Australia’s laboui shortage was part of the genera] population problem, which had been aggravated by restrictions on the size of families during the depression years. Much was being done to secure immigrants from the United Kingdom and from the Scandinavian countries. • Outlining some of the controls faced by Australian manufacturers. Mr Cutler said that price control had been, and. still was. extremely strict. It had resulted in the cost of living having risen only 24 per cent, since the •outbreak of war. Instead of import restrictions, as in New Zealand. Australia had export restrictions designed to keep the home market fully supplied with goods. The home market was > extremely good at present, Mr Cutler said, since people had accumulated big savings and could now spend them on things they could n‘ot previously buy. Mr W. A. Bascand presided, and Mr Cutler was also welcomed, on behalf of the association, by Mr B. J. Masters.