DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRIES

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27322, 12 April 1954, Page 3

DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRIES

AUCKLAND EXAMPLE CITED MR WATTS’S VIEWS ON FUTURE TRENDS (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, April 11. Industrial development had reached its highest peak in the Auckland area, said the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr J. T. Watts), when he opened the Easter Show last evening. The scope and size of the development could perhaps be ’ symbolised by a single street in a single borough— Carr road, Mount Roskill, where in three years 34 factories had been built. “I understand there is at present in the Auckland area a move being made ttf set up industrial estates on lines similar to the very successful industrial and trading estates established in the United States and the United Kingdom,” said Mr Watts. “It will be interesting to follow these schemes, because this type of industrial development could well be the pattern of our industrial future, especially in our smaller provincial areas.” In the obvious and close relationship between the welfare of city and farm, farmers and manufacturers had to forget their differences and realise their inter-dependent duties, said Mr Watts. Co-operation of this kind was essential in ensuring the future of the country. It had been estimated, he said, that the country’s population would be nearly 3,000,000 by 1975. An increase of this size would obviously mean a proportionate increase in the quantity of primary products consumed within the country. Because of New Zealand’s dependence on the export of such products, the greater home demand could create a problem. “The answer, of course, is to apply that increased population in the first instance in increasing our production of primary products, said the Minister. “The Government is giving this urgent consideration, and many will already be familiar with much that has been done or is planned to assist in developing our farm production. ‘ ‘The increase in population expected will naturally involve a considerable increase in the labour force of the country, and jobs will have to be found for those people,” he said. “Some will be absorbed in the expanded farm programme, but it is to our manufacturing and servicing industries that we must look to place the majority of our extra workers.”