Rising Costs

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 264, 4 August 1937, Page 11

Rising Costs

Sir, —I shall be greatly surprised and disappointed if the Government is bustled into giving protection to those secondary industries mentioned by the secretary of the Manufacturers’ Federation. The position in New Zealand, so far at least as boots and. clothing are concerned, is nothing short of alarming. There are 76 boot factories and 290 clothing factories in New Zealand. How can the Manufacturers' Federation possibly justify that? Again, competition . with imports is limited by the rising costs in other countries. One is led to think that New Zealand is the only country thus blighted, but those having dealings with Au.Valia and England know that costs there are rapidly mounting. Therefore if our industries are efficient they will survive. If not they will surely perish. Boots and shoes in Australia are half the price of similar in New Zealand. . Why? Because New Zealand is over-ridden with small uneconomic units and burdened with out-of-date machinery. Why, then., should the State put a premium on inefficiency at the expense of the balance of the community? Det the Government treat *lie. boot and clothing factories in the same manner as it treated the chemists of New Zealand--—give the industries notice to put their houses in ' order first; then, if necessary, in the public interest let them have protection. Once I was taught that “Competition was the life of trade,” but now it seems that competition can be “unfair" and “senseless”—except, of course, when the State enters into it, when it becomes “an unwarranted interference with the rights of private traders.” Yet the federation desires State interference—to suit its own ends. I confess I am rather bemused with this wealth of pocket-thinking philosophy. —I am, etc., MAC DEE. Palmerston North, August 2.