Labour Target 10,000 Migrants A Year

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31782, 12 September 1968, Page 9

Labour Target 10,000 Migrants A Year

. (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 10. A target of 10,000 assisted immigrants a year by 1971 is the Labour Party’s aim if it becomes the Government next year.

The party’s spokesman on industry, Mr W. W. Freer, said this today after a meeting between himself, Mr J. Walding and Mr B. P. Macdonell, and members of the Wellington Manufacturers’ Association at which Labour Party policy on industry and exports was discussed. Mr Freer said the main pre-

condition for bringing in more assisted immigrants was a confidence in the economy inside New Zealand. He compared the attitude of uncertainty in New Zealand with that of confidence and buoyancy in Australia, where the Government was able to bring in large numbers of immigrants. “I hope that at the end of three years we would be bringing in 10,000 assisted immigrants a year,” Mr Freer said. Mr Freer emphasised the need to give incentives to manufacturers to decentalise into depressed areas such as the West Coast, where there was a social' problem because of the impending closing of mines.

Among incentives offered would be a freight differential to enable such firms to compete with those in larger cities, low interest on development finance and help with building finance. Mr Walding tied this in with the party’s plan to develop selected types of industry by saying the incentives would be offered to “certain industries in certain places.”

The president of the Manufacturers’ Association (Mr J. S. Osborne) said that this would be welcomed by manufacturers “provided there was no direction.” Mr Osborne also welcomed a statement by Mr Freer that “we have got to have a policy towards industry that will enable them to plan ahead for as long as possible.” Another point which met manufacturers’ approval was an assurance that the emergency protection authority would not be used to determine what tariffs should be applied to imports after delicensing. “The tariffs must be adjusted before licences are abolished,” Mr Freer said. He said that licensing would be reimposed in some areas where it had been lifted (“wool for instance,” Mr Macdonell said), but the whole matter of imports would have to be looked at.

The party would also set up an import-export corporation which would build warehouses and cool stores in

promising markets, where exporters could draw on existing stocks to press home sales. It would also pursue bilateral trade agreements, but preferably of a long-term nature where the transactions covered a number of years.