N.Z. COULD HAVE NYLON

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30471, 19 June 1964, Page 3

N.Z. COULD HAVE NYLON

(N.Z. Press Association) HAMILTON, June 18.

It would be a brave or even a short-sighted government that said consumers could not have man-made fibres, the Secretary of Industries and Commerce (Dr. W. B. Sutch) told the Ruakura farmers’ conference here today.

“This being so, surely the wise course is to make our home requirements in New Zealand from imported nylon flake rather than spend far more money in importing finished nylon products,” said Dr. Sutch. “You will have heard that two factories for the manufacture of nylon yarns are being established at present. “There has been some criticism of this from wool grow-

ing interests. They ask why we should encourage the manufacture and, inferentially, the use of nylon when so much of our national livelihood is based on the sale of wool. “On the other hand we cannot mistake the fact that the man-made fibres are part of the life of today and tomorrow,” said Dr. Sutch. “We don’t make nylon flake here. But we do have many of the raw materials on which a chemical industry could be based —coal, limestone; natural gas, salt, and the by-products, of the new oil refinery,” said Dr. Sutch.

“Our chemical industry is under-developed. This is one of the big gaps in our industrial base. This has been realised and the chemical industry is starting to grow, moving deeper and deeper into more basic forms of manufacture. “It is not too much to expect that. nylon flake will eventually be made here from New Zealand raw materials and at that stage the manufacture of nylon yarn will be no different in principle from the manufacture of woollen yarn from New Zealand grown wool,” said Dr. Sutch.