NEW ZEALAND INDUSTRIES

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 38, 15 February 1919, Page 9

NEW ZEALAND INDUSTRIES

EVIDENCE AT PARLIAMENTARY

COMMITTEE.

(BI TELEGRAPH.—PRISS ASSOCIATION.)

CHRISTCHURCH, 14th February. At the Industries Committee to-day representatives of the furniture tradeurged that a preferential tariff of 12i per cent, be imposed on furniture from European and American and allied countries, that restrictions be placed, on 'importations from countries where the .wages, and the standard of living are lower'than in New, Zealand, and that goods made in enemy ■countries be prohibited for ten years. It was also recommended that the Commission should inquire into the manufacture'in the Dominion, of three-ply veneer and raw spirit; also that yarious specified articles ÜBed in the trade should be admitted free.

Mr. A. Smellie, Otago Iron ■ Rolling Mills, advocated the admission of rolling machinery free and a preferential railway tariff.

Mr. T. Ringland, representing an iron and steel company in Dunedin, asked the Committee to help to secure semi-finished steel;, from Australia,

Mr. C. M. Olliver, president of the Canterbury Progress League, said that industry could be helped if a Minister for Industries were appointed, who had some capacity for the work. Money should be advanced to industries by the Government as well as to people going on the land, and money should be voted for scientific research work. Speaking as chairman of directors of the Woolston Tanneries,. Ltd., witness detailed grievances of his company as a result of Government interference. A sympathetic Government was required to "help New Zealand industries. Labour troubles did not worry them., The curse of this country was the inefficient employer. Witness advocated the discontinuance of the branding of cattle, which he alleged spoilt hides.

On behalf of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. H. J. Marriner urged improvements of local railway facilities, duplication of the Lyttelton Tunnel, and speedy completion of the. Midland line. Mr. S. R. Collery urged quicker and cheaper means of tyansit for perishable pi-oducts

Mr. C.->A. Myhre, -president of the Christchurch Clothijng Manufacturers' Association, stated that clothing manufactured in 1911 was valued at £507,125, and clothing imported during the same year was at a landed value of £1,378,858. Had this been manufactured in the Dominion it would have given employment to ah additional 8012 hands. IJuring the war period the importation of clothing nearly stopped and the demand fell upon the Dominion producers, with satisfactory results. : He anticipated, an additional demand for clothing, and said that it would be necessary to materially increase the output. He suggested that to meet the scarcity of labour the Government should seriously consider the matter of immigration, not necessary single-girls, but families. ■ To prevent the importation of shoddy clothing there should be an impost of ,a; fixed sum per garment, in addition to the present duty. The cheaper - kinds of garments for the use of workers engaged in dirty work could be manufactured in New Zealand.