INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27962, 8 May 1956, Page 15

INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE

RECENT CHANGES IN DEPARTMENT (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 7.

Recent administrative ’ change? would enable the department to carry out more effectively the wider industrial and trade activities it was now undertaking, said the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr E. H. Halstead) this evening. Although price control work had steadily decreased, trade promotion and economic and commercial policy were receiving more attention, both overseas and within New Zealand, said lhe Minister. It had also been necessary to expand the department’s economic and research section to study such problems as balance of payments, effects of the credit restraints, national development, and restraint of trade. All this has been possible with a reduction in staff, even though the increased volume and varietv of imports had added greatly to the work involved in import licensing, he said. Over the last six years the staff of the department had dropped from 532 to 358.

The administrative reorganisation had been carried out along the lines of the three broad streams of activity of the department. There were now three assistant-secretaries. Mr H L Wise was responsible for activities related to the distribution of goods and services, including price control, restraint of trade, merchandise marking standards, and licensing of distributors. Under the Secretary (Mr P. B. Marshall), Dr. W. B. Sutch was lesponsible for activities associated with the development of resources, including economic investigations, industrial surveys, import licensing, and protective aspects of the tariff. Mr G. R. J. Hope was responsible for the export side, covering trade relations and trade promotion.