DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRY

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 25031, 13 November 1946, Page 8

DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRY

OPINION OF NATIONAL PARTY SPEAKER USE OF HOME-GROWN RAW MATERIAL The opinion that there was ample scope for the development of secondary industries closely related to primary production in New Zealand, and that their success was endangered by attempts to build up other industries for which raw materials had to be im£orted, was expressed by Mr W. Sulvan, National Party candidate for Bay of- Plenty, when he spoke in Christchurch last evening. Mr Sullivan said there were secondary industries in New Zealand before the Hon. D. G. Sullivan became Minister of Industries and Commerce. They employed about the same percentage in 1921 as they did to-day, about 24 or 25 per cent. The primary industries of New Zealand realised that the secondary industries which were justified and farmers had to work together to get full employment. He believed that no one was going to “knock” the important secondary industries more than the present Government. Woollen mills, for instance, could not get sufficient labour to meet the domestic demand, and there was an export trade to be built up in their goods, but the Government was supporting the establishment of cotton mills. Where were they going to get labour? The wool was grown in New Zealand, but the cotton had to be imported. When New Zealand had built up the secondary industries for which the country was best suited and for which it had export markets, and if there was then unemployment, it could go into other industries. Mr Sullivan said another line m which New Zealand could build up an export trade was in exotic timber and their products. The Whakatane Paper Mills, he was told, could sell cardboard in New Zealand from £3 to £l5 a ton cheaper than imported cardboard. It was working three shifts a day. Another firm making wallboard out of timber was exporting to India, but it could process in its factory only one-tenth of its annual growth of timber. That was the type of industry which he thought should be built up, because, like woollen manufacturing, it was related to New Zealand’s primary production. Speaking of import control, Mr Sullivan said this had had the effect of reducing New Zealand’s stocks of goods before the war. More imports could be obtained now if it were not for red tape and delays in getting licences. Britain was Ynaking an export drive. It might be, as the Government said, that licences had been issued for £100,000,000 worth of goods, but many were for goods which were not available. What would New Zealand’s position be if the United Kingdom placed an embargo on some of her imports?