The Dominion WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1943. AN INESCAPABLE POST-WAR PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 3, 29 September 1943, Page 4

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1943. AN INESCAPABLE POST-WAR PROBLEM

A very real problem which faces the country, and which up to the present has received only cursory attention, is that oi the future of our manufacturing industries. Many manufacturing industries in New Zealand have either been established over a long period of yeais, or are linked with overseas firms of world-wide reputation and position. Their products have stood the test of—in some cases geneiations of competition, and have won a high, and no doubt a permanent, place in public favour. There is, however, another class of .manufacturing industry in this Dominion which has come into existence as a result of import restriction and which may depend upon continuing import restriction foi" its survival. In wartime certain of the industries in this category are perfot ruing a welcome and useful function in supplying the community with goods which could not otherwise be obtained —for the war itself has restricted imports very drastically. But after the war—what ? lhe question must and will arise as to whether the co-operative role New Zealand is bound to play in international rehabilitation—together with our fjjture relations with those to whom we sell our primary products —will permit her to maintain a policy of secondary industrial protection, which means prohibiting importation of a wide range of overseas manufactured goods. . Certain members of the Government, including the Munster ot Finance (Mr. Nash), have hinted recently that they have doubts about, the extent to which such a policy can be carried on in the post-war era. The problem, however, will have to be courageously faced. The Government has yet to confess that a problem exists just over the horizon which separates the world from the new era of peace and reconstruction. In fighting the election Labour preferred to pretend that the present-day structure of our secondary industries stood as a whole on a sound, enduring basis. This is seriously open to question because the section of the -secondary industries of the Dominion which is of recent and more or less, spectacular growth, has taken root and expanded behind the protective barrier of import restrictions. If these restrictions were to be removed as part of the post-war plan for removing barriers to international trade the keen wind of overseas competition might wither the artificially-nurtured industries in a season or two. . This week there was published a cable message referring to the interest which is being taken in the City of London in post-wai oppoitunities for British export trade. The message continued: There is grave uneasiness regarding the post-war absorptive capacity of the Dominions for British industrial products. . . - Many acute observers discern in this apparent conflict between Empire and Home manufacturing industries a source of potentially grievous misunderstanding unless it is faced in time. That is the other side of a picture which the Government of this country has for so long persuaded the people to look at from one siGe only. Britain is our best customer. She is—and is likely to remain for a considerable time to come—our main market for products, which we must sell overseas if we are to maintain our standards of living and our national economy as a whole. After the war Britain may need our trade, just as we will certainly need hers. Some reciprocal undertaking, involving overhaul of our import restriction system, may become an essential contribution by this Dominion to world rehabilitation. It is by no -means too soon for the Government, and the people, to consider frankly and fully the implications of such a move.