PROSPERITY OF INDUSTRY

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27308, 26 March 1954, Page 10

PROSPERITY OF INDUSTRY

EFFECT OF REMOVING IMPORT CONTROLS

MANUFACTURERS SAID TO BE TOO PESSIMISTIC

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 25. ~ In °P m ion of the chairman of i .f,? oa A d £ £ Trade <Sir David Smith), the New Zealand manufacturer who is efficiently producing articles of good quality is in a much stronger position than he has been accustomed to think. Sir David Smith expressed this view m an address to the Wellington branch of the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand tonight. Though some manufacturers did not Object to the removal of import licensing, most of them had claimed that they could not survive without it, he said. However, most industries which had been decontrolled were surviving very well, but in some cases they were complaining. The efficient New Zealand manufacturer who was making articles of good quality and' who had been keeping his brand before the publid, did not know how strong his position really was, said Sir David Smith. The manufacturer tended to overlook the fact that, since the Second World War wage* actually paid overseas had increased, and that freight and landing charges had risen. The New Zealand ad valerom duty operated on the increased costs to increase the duty. The New Zealand manufacturer tended to overlook also that pride in being a New Zealander had grown in recent years, and with it the desire to support New Zealand manufactures of good quality, said Sir David Smith. • If that feeling continued to develop—and he thought it would—the New Zealand manufacturer would reap the same benefit as the American manufacturer had in developing the desire in Americans to buy goods produced in America.