The Steel Industry

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

The Steel Industry

Sir,—l do not think-that the .proposal to establish the steel industry in New Zealand has received the notice or publicity that such an important proposal deserves. For this reason I was particularly pleased to see a letter by "E.C.,” appearing in your columns of January 26, stressing the fact that we should not allow any smoke screens raised by interested parties to prevent us from establishing this most important and possibly vital industry. During the past 18 months or more, we have had the spectacle of the Dominion’s affairs being held up right and left for the want of steel, and we have no guarantee that such conditions will not arise from time to time in the future, if we still continue to be wholly dependent for our supply of steel from overseas. Personally, I have no confidence in the belief that our steel market can at all times be supplied from overseas and Australia. This is a matter dependent solely on local conditions in Australia and also on world conditions. Further, it should be remembered that the nearest, source of supply, Australian steel, is just 1300 miles across the Tasman, and these waters may at some future date, due to hostilities with a foreign Power or group of Powers, render impossible even the trading with our nearest neighbour..-. In any case, we should be in a position, like Australia, to manufacture most of our requirements, and the establishment of the steel industry would ultimately go a long way toward this end. For these reasons we should strive in New Zealand toward the establishment of at least the nucleus of such a vital and basic industry, the lack of which at times can bring the country’s building and constructional work to a standstill. Finally there is, as has been pointed out by "E.C.," the matter of employment to be considered, and it is assumeed that in the event of the establishment of the industry and allied trades, employment would be given to a considerable number of men, both skilled and unskilled. This is by no means an undesirable feature of the establishment of the industry, even if a substantial subsidy had to be paid fr rn the employment tax funds.—l am, etc.. NEW ZEALANDER. Wellington, January 26.