BUSINESS BOOM

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 105, 28 January 1938, Page 13

BUSINESS BOOM

Prosperity In Britain WHY DOMINION’S BEST MEN REMAIN THERE Views Of Industrialist 1 One of the most interesting visitors to Wellington at present is Mr. Ernest E. Sharp, M.1.E.E., director o£ Venner’s Time Switches, of New Malden, Surrey, England, who is making a visit to this country with his wife. Mr. Sharp supports the many statements that England industrially is enjoying an era of great prosperity, a prosperity which seems to have some basis of permanence as far as one could see in a rapidly-changing world. Certain it is that England was back to what one might call normality, and all the heavy Industries were standing boldly on their legs again. He would not admit that the manufacture of armaments was the main cause of the present happy condition. “We were practically back to busy times before the rearmament work started, said Mr. Sharp. “Indeed, I don’t know whether all "this armament work was not actually a set-back against the industrial recovery, for It has taken a lot of people who would otherwise have been absorbed in industry in a normal way. I mean by that, England could have done perfectly well without this rearmament work; and, please remember, I am not speaking politically, but just as a business man. I would say that there wks very little genuine unemployment in England before the rearmament work commenced. Of course, you realise that in every industrial country in the world there will always be some people out of work. There has always be<*u unemployment in England, but it was not thrust under the nose of evervone until they were compelled to register. That is what called everyone’s attention to it. Demand For Boys. “Even to-day in England it is difficult to get enough of the right type of man in industry—skilled o r .unskilled. I mean the man that is intelligent, conscientious and competent. That is pretty well known in all industrial centres; so that there is an eager de- / mand for boys as they leave school by firms who must sustain a certain standard of product. There are two brain lobes to the industrial being—the one is the research department, where discoveries are made and developed, and the other the department which calls for highly-skilled men in tool-making. When you have to have tools that will operate to within a thousandth part of an inch, you must have the type of men to make them. Having those two departments properly manned and the business otherwise organised, the rest do not matter very materially, as they cannot very well go wrong. But it is essential to have those skilled and semi-skilled men in the works, and. as I said before, they are not easily obtainable. Such is the demand that at the present time the highly skilled man is almost impossible to get. “That is why I think that you will have some difficulty in attracting them to New Zealand.” said Air. Sharp. Best Stay In England. “I see you are talking a good deal about immigration—you want to fill empty spaces, as does also Australia. I have been looking into the matter since I have been here, and I do not think that taking wages, purchasing power, home coinforts, into consideration you have anything to offer tradesmen in England. Your wages are higher, but so is your cost of living. Things are so good at Home now, and the wage-level so satisfactory, that I fancy you will have difficulty in digging men out of England to come to New Zealand or Australia. “Originally your forbeays came here from England; but that was at a time when conditions of life were very different from what they are today. A hundred years ago England was very different,- and many were glad to leave the grinding poverty and hardship for a chance to better themselves on the other side of the world. But the situation has changed I You may be aware that the order has now changed; that we are getting your better-class young men because there is not the scope here for them. They get their B.E. degree here perhaps, and then go to England for experience, but as a rule they do not. come back. There is no prospect for them here, so they stay on. I know what I am saying because I have interviewed the parents of young men who are at Home now, and in almost every case, though those parents would like to see their boys, they urge me to get their sons to stay on in England. And they are the best types.” Electrical Development. Mr. Sharp also mentioned the great strides forward in electrical development which had been made in England during the last ten years, through the establishment of the grid System of generation and transmission, a gigantic scheme which interlinked the whole of the electrical supply of England. The Government made Lord McGowan a Commissioner to intfltire into and report upon the matter of distribution — to determine whether it was not in the interests of efficiency to have larger distributing areas than those in existence. “The Bill, based on the report, is, “I understand, to be presented to Parliament next month,” said Mr. .Sharp, “ that will be an Enabling Bill to hold inquiries as to the absorption of certain of the smaller areas and, if decided upon, upon what terms.” Mr. Sharp said the whole of the electricity in England was produced by steam plants, and that the terms on which it was sold to the public compared favourably with any other part of the world. Mr. and Mrs. Sharp intend to return to England via Canada.