Hope that farmers will stop attacks

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32967, 13 July 1972, Page 2

Hope that farmers will stop attacks

fiVew Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, July 12.

Hopes that the election of a new president of Federated Farmers would end “unwarranted” attacks on industry were voiced in a statement today by Mr H. H. Saunders, president of the Manufacturers’ Federation.

Congratulating Mr B. Dryden on his election, Mr Saunders said: “Manufacturers will extend every co-operation and assistance to him in the common task of strengthening the twin pillars on which New Zealand’s economy rests —strong farming and manufacturing sectors.

“My hope is that the election of Mr Dryden represents the end of an era of unwarranted attacks on industry. “It is almost beyond belief that at a time when unity between all sectors of the economy is of vital importance in the interests of the nation, Mr Dryden’s predecessor, Mr A. C. Begg, saw fit to make another blatant and undignified attack on manufacturing in general and the electronics industry in particular,” said Mr Saunders.

The electronics industry, which had borne the brunt

of Mr Begg’s attack, was “just the sort of industry we should all be helping.” The next logical step to

denying industry the chance to make colour television sets would be to “sound the ultimate knell of a sector which has enormous technological potential,” he said. Mr Saunders’s remarks about colour television sets came after an assertion yesterday by Mr Begg that imported colour receivers could be sold far more cheaply than those manufactured locally if import protection was dropped. FIGURE REJECTED In a separate statement tonight, the executive officer of the Radio and Television Manufacturers’ Federation (Mr M. F. Dawson) said Mr Begg’s statement was nonsense. A $4OO price quoted by Mr Begg was the landed cost price only, to which had to be added duty and sales tax, as well as substantial wholesalers’ and retailers’ margins. “We can prove that New Zealand manufacturers can produce high-quality colour television sets, comparable with any overseas product, to sell to the public at the same price,” Mr Dawson said. A local industry saved overseas exchange and helped to provide full employment, he said.