N.Z. POTTERY INDUSTRY

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25994, 23 December 1949, Page 3

N.Z. POTTERY INDUSTRY

“QUALITY ON UP AND UP” IMPORTERS CRITICISED A group of ‘’highly biased” im- ' porters had been continually mislead- ' ing the New Zealand public by pungent ill-informed criticism of local ware in a vain effort to maintain the fast disappearing prejudice against local goods, said Mr D. I. Macdonald, secretary of the New Zealand Pottery and Ceramic Manufacturers’ Association, in a statement yesterday. Various items of New Zealand made pottery and ceramic ware could now be bought at prices below those of similar quality imported articles, he said. “The people of the Dominion must be given -the true facts,” said Mr Macdonald, “New Zealand quality is on the up and up. Scientific production control, continued research into local clays, introduction of skilled overseas potters and experts, and the training of New Zealand operatives is taking care of quality which any unbiased person will admit has improved tremendously.” When the price aspect was considered it was enlightening to compare New Zealand and overseas wage rates, he said. The American pottery and ceramic industry had just conducted an exhaustive survey to determine why employment had dropped to the stage that, at January, 1949, eight employees per 100 were unemployed and production had been reduced by 10 per cent, to 15 per cent. The answer lay in wage rates paid in America as compared with overseas rates leading to greater imports into America. The average rates were found to be: —United States of America, 133 cents an hour; New Zealand, 65 cents an hour; Great Britain, 38 ctents an hour; Japan, below 10 cents an hour. “It is all too clear from the figures that the importer with only selfinterest at heart gives no thought to and is endangering the continued employment and high standard of living of local workers. He is hopelessly pitted against an indigenous industry which will prove a most useful unit in the Dominion’s economic life,” Mr Macdonald continued. “When buying a New Zealand made article the customer is protecting his own employment and the high standard of living of the New Zealand worker which the quoted figures amply demonstrate. The customer is also ensuring the maximum importation of those goods we do not manufacture because we can only buy from overseas to the limit of our income.”

The general public would see the industry’s faith in its own capabilities vindicated to an even greater extent in the coming years, with greater quantities of high quality ware to suit every taste rolling from local kilns. It would also be interesting to watch the effect in New Zealand of the overall approximate increase of 7$ per cent, in the cost of English ware as recently announced in Great Britain, he concluded.