DELIVERY OF ORDERS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 129, 24 February 1939, Page 10

DELIVERY OF ORDERS

New Zealand-Made Goods REQUEST BY MINISTER A request I hat New Zealand factories be given a reasonable time to produce and deliver orders, was made yesterday by Hie Alinistm- of Industries and Commerce, Mr. Sullivan. He said that if all distributors wauled their orders delivered at once —and there was a tendency for retailers to expect tills just now —then they would embarrass local manufacturers unduly. The .Minister said that by custom and through necessity, it had been and still was the practice for wholesalers, retailers. and even domestic manufacturers themselves to allow considerable time for delivery when placing orders for goods of all kinds that were to come from overseas. When these same traders and manufacturers placed orders in New Zealand, they appeared to expect that their requirements should be waiting on tlie selves of tlie local factory and that they should lie available without any delay whatever. “I ask such buyers, is this fair and reasonable?” said Air. Sullivan. “If trade is not to be seriously interrupted by the change-over from certain imports to the use of goods produced in the Dominion, reasonable time must be given to our domestic factories to produce and deliver orders. I have been advised that some retailers are already realizing their duty in this respect and helping by ordering locally on an indent basis. “Tlie request that I am making willI feel sure, be regarded as a most reasonable proposition as between tellow New Zealanders, and simply amounts to doing unto our own manufacturers what we would do for those overseas.“ Contact With Federation. The Alinlster said that manufacturers who had not made contact with tlie New Zealand Federation of Manufacturers in Wellington, or their local associations in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, and elsewhere, should do so immediately, because the Government was making its contacts in relation to expansion of existing units through the federation, the subsidiaries of which were the local associations or industry groups. Already about SO groups bad been in conference witli the department's special industries committee.

So that there would not be confusion or overlapping regarding the importation of raw or semi-manufactured materials for local manufacturers, it would make for more efficient and speedy administration and prevent overlapping and lengthy investigations if manufacturers would continue to order their overseas requirements •through the agents, importers, or merchants who had been accustomed to supply them in the past. Where a firm had made certain overseas connexions and had rendered a satisfactory service, it deserved consideration and a continuation as far as possible of its business.