DEVELOPMENT OF MILL

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29146, 5 March 1960, Page 12

DEVELOPMENT OF MILL

Mr Nash’s Figure Questioned

(New Zealand Press Association) BLENHEIM, March 4. The announcement by Mr Nash of a first stage development of £2 million rising to £4 million ! for the Nelson cotton mill was a little astonishing, the member of Parliament for Marlborough, Mr r. P. Shand, said today. The company's original proposal was for a £lmillion to £l] million proposal, not £2 million, manufacturing products where consumer choice was of little importance provided quality was' satisfactory, he said. i "Has Mr Nash persuaded them ’ to extend into more controversial j fields or has he allowed his native bent for exaggeration to' adjust the figures?” he asked. "There is, of course, consider- j able merit in Mr O'Shea's com- ’ plaint against even the basic proIposal,” Mr Shand said. "It is not a very appropriate time to say j to our friends and customers in that we will not take | their product. Alternatively, j since this is an industry in which j the Far East can supply more; cheaply than anywhere else, we i might well consider this product ; as the basis for reciprocal trade i from which we would receive a much needed stimulus for the I sale of our surplus mutton and dried milk. "The conflicting advantages of stimulating our external trade, which must provide the finance. lor our industrial raw materials,; against those of making ourselves J iess dependent on imports and[ providing productive employment ’ lor our growing population, can j never be exactly balanced,’ ’ he | said. "Extension of the Indus- [ try into wider fields, as the Prime J Minister blithely implies, 'would be another matter, involving denying to the housewife a reasonable choice of cotton materials.”