Govt. And Location Of Industry

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31027, 5 April 1966, Page 15

Govt. And Location Of Industry

The Government could encourage manufacturers to decentralise by discouraging new industries from beginning in areas where it is known there is a shortage of labour, Sir Jack Harris believes.

Sir Jack Harris, governorIng director of Bing, Harris, and Company Ltd, says this in a letter to the Wairarapa Development Council which is organising a national seminar on decentralisation. "The Government should certainly encourage, as far as

possible, the decentralisation of industry and. also, there are considerable merits in placing industry close to the available pool of workers rather than endeavouring to transport the workers to the industry,” he says. “My company has developed along decentralised lines probably more than any other similar group in this country. This was not part of a longscale plan but rather because opportunities presented themselves to us in the smaHer towns. However, considerable advantages have accrued to us from this policy. “Generally speaking, labour is more readily available in

the smaller towns than in the main centres, although this does not apply in all cases. It is possible to acquire land at reasonable prices close to the centre of the population of the smaller cities.

"A survey of the potential labour force is, however, desirable before commencing operations in a new area. For instance, I knew of some cases where manufacturers have opened new industries in suburbs of Auckland and have been unable to obtain labour simply because they have not realised that the population of these new areas consists, for the most part, of young married couples. The women have to stay home with the children, and the children are too young to work. “The problem of control of manufacturing units is, of course, much greater, when one’s operations are widely dispersed. This problem can, however, be minimised by careful selection of management and by very detailed factory programming,” he says.

Sir Jack Harris says that no-one who has travelled extensively overseas wants to see urban concentrations such as exist in London, New York, and Tokyo. “The problem of supplying these huge cities with essential services such as water and electricity is so serious that there have been major breakdowns, at least in New York and Tokyo, in recent years,” he says. “Life is not easy in these great cities because the congestion of public and private transport makes it necessary for workers to travel long distances in crowded trains and buses.

"New Zealand has been fortunate in that its population is well spread throughout the country, but there are signs of intense urban development in the Auckland area which could, in time, create similar conditions to those existing in the great cities of the world,” says Sir Jack Harris. The national seminar on decentralisation will be held from April 26 to 28 at Masterton.