PARLIAMENT Bigger Expenditure On Trade Promotion Urged

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29315, 21 September 1960, Page 16

PARLIAMENT Bigger Expenditure On Trade Promotion Urged

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 20. New Zealand should spend up to £sm a year for the next five years on trade promotion, the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr Holloway) said today. “I believe it would be the best investment this country could have. We have been too niggardly in the amount of money we have spent—not only through the Government but through other agencies,” Mr Holloway said. He was speaking in a debate in the House of Representatives on the Industries and Commerce Department estimates. In the same debate, Mr Holloway said he was not satisfied with the present Trade Practices Act. ‘‘There are amendments proposed to the act, but I don’t know whether there will be time to introduce them this session,” he said.

Earlier in the debate Mr J. T. Watts (Opposition, Fendalton), asked Mr Holloway whether he was satisfied with the operation of the Trade Practices Act

“I think the department has administered the act in accordance with the principles set out in the act” Mr Watts said. “But industry has been put to a good deal of trouble filing returns as required by the act, and I wonder if the Minister could now make some provision to enable businesses to file modified returns.”

Mr Holloway said there had already been several administrative changes which should improve the operation of the act

“There have been about 800 registrations made under the act so far. and there are another 200 pending. But we have a shortage of trained staff in the department to deal with this sort of work,” he said. “Constant Need”

“With the growth of take-over bids and monopolies I am convinced of the constant need for trade practices legislation.” To Mr Watts’s suggestion that the motion picture industry no longer required to be licensed, as it was “rather in the doldrums,” Mr Holloway said the Internal Affairs Department was already considering changes. “There is still a need for some protection for British films, but the need for over-all licensing of the industry is much less with the advent of television,” Mr Holloway said. “I think the licensing could be liberalised.” Discussing the development of manufacturing—Mr Watts had noted a decrease of 414 in the number of factories and an increase of only 154 factory workers in the last financial year.— Mr Holloway said that horsepower in industry a person was increasing, and productivity was also increasing. The Government had recognised the need for more skille'’ labour, and the Minister of Labour (Mr Hackett) had taken steps to recruit skilled workers in the United

Kingdom, he added, referring to a point raised by Mr D. J. Eyre (Opposition, North Shore). “But too many employers rely on the Government to bring out skilled workers,” he said. “Some industries that are quite capable of doing so have made no effort to recruit labour themselves. They expect, the Government to do it for them.”

Critics of the proposed Nelson cotton mill were not fully informed, Mr Holloway said to a question by Mr N. L. Skelton (Opposition, Rangitikei). “The criteria of price and quality do apply to the mill,” he said. "There is an assurance in the agreement between the Government and the company that the price for goods from the mill will be no more than a fair average of the price for imported articles, and the quality will meet the required standards.” The mill was expected to export considerable quantities of goods to Australia.

Mr Holloway said the Government had given no firm undertaking to the mill’s sponsors on tariff protection. “We’ve said that when they’re in • production they can make application to the tariff board and make a case to the board.” he added.

Answering members’ questions about trade representation overseas. Mr Holloway said he believed that New Zealand should spend as much as £sm each year for the next five years on trade promotion—not all by the Government but by the producer boards and the export interests combined.

Discussing commercial representation in Europe, Mr Holloway -said: “I believe we must go into Europg. It is difficult to find which way they are going, but it is my belief that we should have at least three representatives in Europe—one at the headquarters of the Common Market in Brussels and one each in the north and south. The more posts we have to promote trade the better it will be.”

Mr T. P. Shand (Opposition. Marlborough) said the job was more for a commercial counsellor at a diplomatic level than for a trade commissioner, and it would be considerably more expensive He considered that industrial expansion had fallen alarmingly since 1958, and had only just recovered in the last six months.

“It is clear that we can produce newsprint at world prices,” Mr Shand said. “We should not worry about using Nelson’s timber in the South Island. Nelson needs an intensive planting programme so that in 10 years we can build a paper mill.” Aluminium, Tourists If an aluminium industry came he thought that the construction industry would have its hands full for some years. There was a third industry, the tourist industry, but the Government had not faced the hindrances to the industry. The Minister in charge of Tourist Resorts (Mr Mathison): You had eight years. Mr Shand: We were hoping that the Government would bring down legislation to remove the biggest hindrance to the industry. Replying to further points, Mr Holloway said that forestry was the most obvious way for New Zealand to increase her overseas earnings, and that was why the paper industry had been delicensed. The scheme for Government factories was not an easy way for manufacturers to get finance. The aim was to encourage industry to get to particular places where it would not otherwise go. where there was a surplus of labour.