AN INDUSTRY DANGER. JAPAN AS A COMPETITOR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 35, 11 February 1908, Page 2

AN INDUSTRY DANGER. JAPAN AS A COMPETITOR.

[By TELEGUArn.— -SrECiAL to The Post.] DUNEDIN, This Day. Mr. James Hcnton, general manager of Messrs. Kempthorne, Prosser, and Co., gave some interesting evidence in an Arbitiation Court case. The Japanese manufacturers of chemical manures were, lie said, their most dangerous competitors. Tho Japanese had raw material in thtir own couutiy, they secured labour at Is^jkt day of twelve hours, and they conld thip the manures to New Zealand at a total cost of 10s per ron. The cheapness of this rate could be real iced when it was known that it cost 12s 6d to chip a .ton of manure from Auckland to Dunedin. If the Japanese commenced to seriously exploit tho New Zealand market with their manures, (hey would force the price down, for they could sell at a cheaper rate than that of tho ailicle manufactured hero, nnd it would result in the industry being killed. , If a protective tariff were put on there would be an outcry frcm the farmers throughout tho country. At tho present time there was not* a great I inducement to carry on the industry which required assistance rather than that a greater burden should be put on it. The demands of the workers, if gianted, would prove a serious handicap, as the pi,icc of their products could not be, raised, ahd the' increased cost must therefore fall direct on the panyTho witness added that tiie amount of capital the company, ..had invested in nurture works, plant and-: stock throughout (ho colony, was £70.215. lhe ntniv ber of men employed ns manure workers in tho Otago and 1 Southland list was 213, and tho wa^es paid them per annum .€15,405. For (ho colony the number would probably bo *rom'l4oo to 1500, and thfe wages paid between £60,000 and £70,000 per annum.-