MIGRATION AND INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 296, 13 September 1927, Page 8

MIGRATION AND INDUSTRY

COMMONWEALTH’S GREATEST NEEDS BRITAIN TO RECEIVE JUST PREFERENCE £5,000,000 FOR INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES RESULTS OF MR. PRATTEN’S WORLD TOUR That British people, British brains, and British capital are to receive every encouragement at the hands of the Commonwealth was made plain by the Hon. A. E. Pratten, Federal Minister of Customs, who was interviewed at Auckland yesterday. As one of the immediate results of his tour abroad Mr. Pratten stated that an additional £5,000,000 of British capital will be expended in the near future in Australia in industrial enterprise. Dominion Special Service. Auckland, September 12. •‘I have been much heartened by British manufacturers’ appreciation of the fact that owing to Australia’s isolation, and as vet somewhat elementary development, protection is a sound national policy for the Commonwealth.” An ardent advocate of tariff protection, the Hon. H. E. Pratten, Federal Minister of Trade and Customs, so expressed himself when he arrived at Auckland from Vancouver by the Niagara, on which steamer he is returning to Australia after several months spent in England and America. Immediately after the historic opening of Canberra, the new Federal capital, All- Pratten left for England on what was ostensibly a holiday visit, but his time was fully occupied' in pointing out the splendid opportunities which exist in Australia for the development of further manufacturing enterprises. Great Britain, the United States, and Canada were visited bv the Australian Minister, who fully investigated the relation of those countries to Australian manufacturing development and other trade and administration matters under the control of his Department. Migration and Industrial Needs. “I have stressed the desirability of migration and industry, preferably British, to Australia, and as a result ot inv trip I believe that secondary industries in Australia will be substantially developed,” said Mr. Pratten. “I have devoted a considerable amount of tune to what is considered by the people concerned a successful attempt to interest British manufacturers in the establishment of branches in Australia. In my opinion the quickest way of meeting our urgent population needs is by creating immediate avenues of new e . n ’P l °y nl ®“ t ' We want British industrialists to help us, and apparently they are to do so. The migration of British people will naturally accompany the migration of British industry which is the best and surest way of keeping clear of the racial problems which are such a festering sore in some of tne countries I visited,

British People, Capital, and Brains Wanted.

“I have devoted mv whole time to the promulgation of the principle that the co-operation of British capital, British people, and British brains will be welcomed by us, for they are materially needed,” said Mr. .Pratten. * fortunately an examination of our bloat ed import figures shows that increasing foreign trade is responsible for tne heavy adverse trade balance. lam an Australian first and a Britisher second, and I should like to see Britain receive every help from our tariff, once our own interests have been served. Australia, I am confident, • will do everything, which it could reasonably be asked to do to conserve Imperial trade against foreign aggression. It is now much better realised in Britain that every additional Australian citizen is the best potential customer of England, but as our industry develops some Empire trade may be diverted to other channels. 1 However, it is now recognised that extra work for two persons in Australia is far better for the Empire than a policy which keeps only one at work in Britain.” No objection, said Mr. Pratten, was taken to the principle that Australia s first duty was to itself rather than to the international trader, whose only interest in the Commonwealth as a rule lay in the profits on the goods he sold.

£5,000,600 to be Invested in Australia

As one of the immediate results of his tour, Mr. Pratten expects that an additional £5,000,060 of British capital will Le expended in Australia in industrial enterprise. One firm alone, manufacturing artificial silks and non-inflam-mable celluloid, purposes sending representatives to Australia to lay the groundwork for a project involving the expenditure of £1,000,000 on a factory. Canadian and American industrialists have also been impressed by Mr. Pratten’s representations, and there appears to be more than a mere expectation that from these quarters, too, the Commonwealth’s industry will be supplemented. It was, said Mr. Pratten, made all the more possible by a protectionist policy which compelled outside traders to jpmp the tariff wall and establish themselves within it to effect busiMr. Pratten refused to discuss tariff reciprocity between Australia and New Zealand. “I have been absent for some months, and I am out of touch with the immediate situation,” he said.