£250,000 MACHINE STARTED BY FINANCE MINISTER

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30481, 1 July 1964, Page 16

£250,000 MACHINE STARTED BY FINANCE MINISTER

The Minister of Finance (Mr Lake) estimates that about £300,000 will be saved each year in overseas funds by a £250,000 rotocure plant which he set in motion at the Garlands road factory of Skellerup Industries, Ltd., yesterday afternoon. The plant, the first of its kind in the Dominion, was expected to produce about £lm of rubber goods annually, Mr Lake said at the ceremony. This would mean, if all were sold, a saving of at least one-third of this amount in overseas funds.

Congratulating the company on the new equipment, Mr Lake described the firm as one of New Zealand’s biggest and most successful. As a taxpayer it contributed about £250,000 a year to the Government, and as the employer of more than 1600 persons

(mainly in Christchurch) it paid almost £lm a year in wages.

Although the rotocure machine was the first to be installed in New Zealand, 10 were operating successfully in Australia. The new unit was probably the most modern in the world.

The 60-ton machine, 18ft high, can turn out more than 50 tons of finished rubber products weekly, To ensure economic production, it will be in continuous use. All its products are free of mixing or quality variations, and it can turn out a product 4ft wide and 1000 ft long. Mr Lake was deputising for the Prime Minister (MrHolyoakej, who was prevented from attending by pressure of Government business and his impending departure for Britain. Before about .100 invited guests Mr Lake pressed a button which set the machine in motion, and Mrs V. R. Skellerup broke a. bottle of champagne against its side. Mr V. R. Skellerup, the chairman of directors, welcomed guests, and the manager of the factory (Mr S. M. Betty) explained technical aspects of the machine.

Fines.—Fourteen young ban-the-bomb demonstrators who with 300 others marched yesterday on the Polaris base at Faslane, were today fined sums ranging between £5 and £lO. They pleaded guilty to a breach of the peace.—Dumbarton, June 30.