STAGE ENDED

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 184, 3 May 1934, Page 10

STAGE ENDED

Economic Development DOMINION’S FUTURE Manufacturing Expansion? By Telegraph.—Press Association. Christchurch, May 2. “It is apparent that we have now reached the end of one definite stage—the second stage of New Zealand’s economic development,” said Mr. A. E. Slander, general secretary, when addressing Christchurch manufacturers to-night. “During tiie last forty years our history has consisted mainly of the expansion of our two great primary industries, producing meat and dairy produce for export, but it appears that to-day we have reached the limit of expansion in this direction. By planned production and marketing these primary industries may be enabled to maintain and dispose of their present output, but that is the utmost we can reasonably hope, for there is little likelihood of further expansion being possible. Nevertheless, the development of New Zealand as a whole must not stop. If no further expansion is possible in one direction then we must seek means of expanding our economic life in some, other direction, and if the expansion of sheep and dairy farming has reached its limit our only hope now is a deliberate policy of developing our manufacturing Industries. “In the past manufacturers have been forced to plead for the bare right to exist, but to-day they should realise that the future of New Zealand depends on them. We are no longer asking merely for the right to exist. Today we say to the Government, the Press, and tiie people that what we ask is an opportunity to expand our industries to give more employment, to increase the spending power of the public, to enlarge the volume of production, and thus to carry on New Zealand’s history of development and national growth. “Nor should we be misled by the hysteria of some of the leaders of the farming industries.' lam convinced that the great majority of reasonable farmers now recognise the truth of my contention. They are bound, for their own sons’ and daughters’ sakes, to support expansion somewhere, and what direction is there other than manufacturing, where expansion is now possible. “Farmers are vitally concerned also with an increasing domestic market for their produce, and here again the rapid growth of manufacturing industries will assist materially in increasing the public’s buying power of farm produce. “For these reasons I believe that very soon farmers will be among the strongest of all supporters of manufacturing industries in New Zealand.”