LOW LABOUR COST

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 33, 8 August 1934, Page 17

LOW LABOUR COST

JAPAN'S ADVANTAGE

COMPETITOR WITH EMPIRE

"It is no use looking to the East as a market for our butter. The Japanese don't want butter; they want rice and fish. They are not educated up to the standard of living at which they look for butter, '' saia Mr. J. J. A. Howie, of the firm of Abbot, Armstrong, and Howie, merchants, of Auckland, who returned to Auckland on the Aorangi yesterday morning (says the "Auckland [Star"). j "Industrially there is no doubt that i Japan threatens the British Empire," said Mr. Howie. "She is concentrating upon industrialising all her big towns, and with her up-to-date methods of production there is not much chance of Britain or her Dominions competing succcssfuly with her. It is in the labour [costs that Japan has a big advantage. The standard of living is much lower for her workers, the wages paid are a mere trifle compared with what we have to pay, and in Japan the workers put in longer hours. We cannot hope to compete successfully under such conditions. "Today all the countries are sellers, buyers being scarce, and the problem is a difficult one to deal with. High tariffs do not produce tho desired result, and I think that if the New Zealand Government would make a gesture to some of these foreign countries and offered to reduce tariffs a little on condition that they take a stipulated quantity of our goods, it would be more satisfactory. It is not much use relying almost solely upon Britain. At present she is busy bolstering up her own trade." Asked if lie had seen anything of tho motor-cars which Japan claimed she would be placing on the market at &ou retail, Mr. Howie said he had not, but he had been told by a manager of one of the Ford factories in America that the Japanese were producing good tires.