OUR INDUSTRIES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 128, 4 June 1929, Page 11

OUR INDUSTRIES

PROTECTION DESIRED

MANUFACTURERS' PROPOSALS

Finality has been reached by the New Zealand Manufacturers' Association, after lengthy deliberations, in the; matter of proposals for a: new ■ Advisory Board to study the tariff question, and the scheme will be laid' ■ before : the Prime Minister and the Minister of Industries and Commerce as goon as they return from Auckland. ; . .

Commending as an. Advisory Board to function on Australian lines, the. proposals developed on lines submitted for safeguarding Industrie-, The attitude of the Government on the question is not clear, but the platform of; the United Party declares itself; in favour of encouraging industries, by' subsidy, which can be adapted to th^ individual needs of .various firms, rather than :by the clumsier method of tarifE. ; barriers. An important bearing, on the. point will be held by the report of a eoinmit- i tee of experts which has been investigating New Zealand, industrial conditions, and which is ito report to the .Government within the next, month or two. The investigations point to the fact that very marked improvements are needed in the best of the older establishments .in New Zealand before they can be claimed: to be: efficient. Striking results have already been obtained from the committee's investigations of factorje conditions, in the Dominion. .... „_. '". In one boot factory,: 'chosen', for its efficiency, it was; founft,tfiat'. by' reorganisation the qost of manufacture of a single pair of shoes could.be reduced by 12 per cent. Operations were plotted on a specially prepared chart, and a,record made of waste time. In consequence of the ■ results "r<i% -the inyjes-: tigation, the whole oparaiions at tlfe factory are being. remodelled. :

Similar study is being made of other branches of industry, and some striking conclusions have, been_rea.ched. J.- The. full report on the matter is expected tobe published within the next month.