NEW ZEALAND’S IMPORTS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27193, 10 November 1953, Page 12

NEW ZEALAND’S IMPORTS

EFFECT ON DOMINION MANUFACTURERS

WAGE RATES IN ASIATIC COUNTRIES

WELLINGTON, November 9. When New Zealand imported goods that were in competition with similar goods made in this country it meant that foreign labour was being imported to compete with New Zealand labour, said the general secretary of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Association (Mr A. R. Dellow) when speaking at a week-tend conference arranged by the District Council of the Workers’ Educational Association and the Council of Adult Education, held in cooperation with the Wellington branch of the Institute of International Affairs.

New Zealand’s imports from the principal Asiatic; countries, such as India, British Ceylon, Malaya and Indonesia, were anything from two to 10 times as great as its exports to

In the case of Japan, trade during recent years had been reasonably balanced, but more recently the trend had been for Japan to buy more from New Zealand than the Dominion imported from Japan. “Generally* speaking, wage rates in the Asiatic countries are much lower than in New Zealand, the wants of the people are fewer and simpler, and their standard of living is lower than our own. Over many years New Zealand has built up a standard of living for its people which is as high as, if not higher than that enjoyed by practically any people in the world,” Mr Dellow continued.

Importance of N.Z. Production New Zealand's social security, the W-hour week and other activities could only be paid for and supported by production. “They cannot be retained if the policy is to be to sell our exports on the dearest possible market and to buy our requirements m the cheapest possible markets. The importation of goods from whatever source means that we are importing the labour of those countries and whe £C import goods that are in competition with similar goods made 1“ ?f aland we are importing 1 » l » ur to compete with New Zealand labouf in selling the goods they make. "A worker In a New Zealand facSSL.J’T??* exp cct to retain his present 40-hour week, let us say, if he prefers to buy other goods made by foreign workers who are Working a 45 or 48-hour week at a lower rate of wages, without social security benefits without statutory paid holidays, without morning and afternoon tea breaks, and without some of the other ameniand social legislation which exist m New Zealand today. If he prefers to buy goods made unders. these less favourable conditions he must be prepared to accept for hiinself the same lower standard of living, otherwise he e i l^ W ‘ w ?J kers wUI not have a job at all,” he said. Mr Dellow went on to say that New Zealand supported United Nations schemes for raising the standards of hying of some of the Eastern countries. Under the Colombo Plan New Zealand was; spending large sums as a * contribution to the training of Asiatic people, to serve their own peoples and to apply modem methods, inventions, and techniques in such fields as agriculture, education, health, and so on for the general advancement of their own standard of living.

tims was a commendable objective foreign trade policy should nt mto the same policy. He said: “Our trade with these countries should be designed to raise their standards of living—not'to enable overseas manufacturers to exploit a plentiful field of cheap labour to the detriment of industries and employment in our own country and the United Kingdom.”