IRON INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 143, 14 March 1938, Page 11

IRON INDUSTRY

Legislative Council Passes Bill SATURDAY SITTING Reference to Utilisation Of Ironsand Consideration of tbe Iron and Steel Industry Bill occupied the Legislative Council on Saturday morning and afternoon. The measure was read a second time, put through its final stages and passed. . „„ The Council will sit again at —of p.m. to-day. Moving the second reading, tne Leader of the Council, Hon. Mark Fagan, said he was informed that, because «of the shortness of supplies of iron and steel, the Government was, 1rnonths behindhand in the construction of rail-cars, in the erection of railway buildings, and on some of the works it would like to do on its main public works jobs. In these troubled times it was up to New Zealand to be sellcontained in respect of these commodities. The establishment of new industries, whether by State enterprise or by private enterprise, was the only solution of the unemployment problem. The Hon. Sir James Allen (Otago) said £5,000,000 was a fairly large sum of money to invest in an enterprise with a doubtful chance of succeeding. He thought that for the time being New Zealand ought to be able to import its iron and steel as it had beeu doing, control the prices in New Zealand, and look for the day when by an increase of trade and population, private interests and the Government combined might develop this industry. He thought that this legislation might do something to prevent the spirit, of the League of Nations developing throughout the world. His judgment of it was that it was a selfish kind of action. “For a long time we have talked in this country of the necessity of de-, veloping secondary industries,” said the Hon. B. Martin (Auckland). “From that point of view the steps now taken by the Government are quite sound.” Few people, Mr. Martin said, realised the extent to -which State enterprise was growing, not only in New Zealand but also all over the world. It was standing the test as against private enterprise. In New Zealand the State had entered into industry after industry successfully and another would be added to the list of successful State industries by this Bill. Utilising Ironsand. • The Hon. J. McLeod (Taranaki) said the objection he had to the Bill was that they were absolutely deficient of Information as to the possibility of the successful operation of the industry. It seemed to him that no investigation had been taken into the question of the utilisation of the ironsands of the country. The Government should have gone further than 'just taking up a report presented to the Unemployment Hoard in 1935 and should have examined the possibility of the ironsands. America, Japan and England to-day were carrying out continuous experiments with ironsand. He wanted to know whether the Government was following those investigations. Mr. McLeod said consideration should' be given to establishing the woijks at Wellington instead of an out of the way place like Onekaka. He would suggest that the (Government’s case was a very poor prospectus indeed and this had been caused by the fact that the Bill had been brought forward hurriedly. It was one of the biggest things tha't had ever been undertaken in New Zealand.

“This country is essentially one of primary industries, and the £5,000,000 could b§ far better put to assisting the primary producers than in a scheme such as this,” said the Hon. E. R. Davis (Auckland). The Government should have' given the community some time to digest this huge scheme, he said.

The Hon. M. Connelly (Otago) said the question whether this industry should pay or not was most important, but it was not the only important question. If as the result of the establishment of the steel industry the State did lose something on it but industry generally was to prosper, and the country could find work for its unemployed and introduce immigrants, then those were considerations that would outweigh any little loss that might take place on the industry.

“For many years I have been a voice in the wilderness advocating that the Government should itself take over these valuable deposits and develop them in the interests of the Dominion,” said the Hon. W. H. Mclntyre (Nelson). To establish the industry near Wellington would mean that the whole of the raw materials would have to be carried to it—coal from Westport or Greymouth, ore from Onekaka, and lime-

stone from Morrinsville. In no other part of the world did they take the coal to the ore. The ore was taken to the eoal.

Any statement that there was not sufficient suitable coal in the Buller district was not correct, Mr. Mclntyre said. It was also quite contrary to fact to say that Westport harbour was a dangerous harbour. The Government would be well advised to have some further investigation in connection with the site.’ Perhaps Westport was nut the best place, but the bulk of the coal must come from there. ( Although supporting the Bill-, the Hon. V. A. Ward (Wellington) expressed concern at several aspects of the proposal. One thing that concerned him was the large amount of money to be spent, he said. He suggested that the Government might consider starting first a small undertaking to produce pig iron, another later for another product,, eo that the enterprise would grow slowly.

Mr. Ward said that in the ordinary course of events private enterprise was the best method to adopt. On tbe other band there were industries that had behind them the national interests and then there was no reason why the State should not come in. In this case he would like to know whether the Minister of Finance had been in touch with any of the iron men in England to see whether any of them would go into partnership with the Government.

The Finance Bill (No. 2) was received from the House of Representatives and read a first time by the Legislative Council on Saturday.