FURNITURE MAKERS

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31449, 16 August 1967, Page 11

FURNITURE MAKERS

Rosy Future Seen The New Zealand furniture industry must find the kind of furniture that best suited the characteristics of timbers grown in this country, said Mr H. J. Walker, M.P., offici- - ally opening the annual conference of the New Zealand Furniture Manufacturers’ Federation. Manufacturers who could overcome the problem set by the restriction on imported timbers and could design for New Zealand requirements would certainly have a rosy future, he said. The objection some people had to the New Zealand-made product had mainly disappeared, he believed, and it was high time that criticism of New Zealand design was forgotten. New Zealanders must depend less and less on outside skills, ideas, and materials. Mr Walker urged furniture _ makers ict to think in terms F of planned obsolescence. Instead of locking for ways to encourage local consumers to | buy more, they should try to | sell to other countries. They I should study overseas mar- | kets and find something miss- | ing there, or something that | could be made as a “special.” I New Zealand furniture | manufacturers must ensure I that the best use was made I of space available. Other g considerations were simplicity I of design, durability and ser- | viceability. To achieve these things g members of the federation 8 must have craftsmen, engine- g ers and perhaps design ex- B parts. They must also know K something of anatomy. R