TYRE INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 143, 14 December 1938, Page 10

TYRE INDUSTRY

TO BE V ESTABLISHED

NEGOTIATIONS TAKING PLACE

The rubber tyre industry, which will provide employment for a large number of New Zealanders, is likely.to be the first of the new major industries to be established in New Zealand as part of the Government's plans for increased industrial development, according to an interview in the "Standard" with the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage). Negotiations for the establishment of this industry in the Dominion, said Mr. Savage, were at present taking place between certain overseas companies and the Ministers of Industries and . Commerce and Customs, and it was likely that an early decision would be made. Mr. Savage emphasised that without control of overseas trade it was not possible for New Zealand to insulate itself against a fall in prices and general slump conditions overseas, and that such action was necessary in order to afford proper protection for New Zealand industries. The action taken by the Government did not mean the holding up of trade, but it did mean that New Zealand was in a position to choose its imports rather than to takexanything that other countries liked to send us. "If we leave ourselves at the tender mercies of other countries when we are trying to establish new industries we might find that the ground is cut from under our feet by large importations," he added. "By complete control of trade we are in a position to protect our own industries more scientifically than can, be done by means of the Customs tariffs." INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION. Mr. Savage then referred to the negotiations which are taking place for the establishment of the rubber tyre industry in New Zealand, and added that the Government's plans also provided for the expansion of existing industries. A complete survey had been prepared for this purpose, he said, and the Government now had information concerning the classes of goods that could be made in the Dominion to supply the full require- j ments pf the country. The Customs tariff, said Mr. Savage, was in principle the same thing as control of imports. It was put there in the first place for the purpose of protecting industries, but the action taken by the Government was a more direct means of accomplishing the same' ends. . "If the Government set out to draft a Bill providing for increases in the Customs tariff," he added, "there would be the same squealing from the importing sections as we have heard in the past week because the effect would be the same in both cases—a reduction in imports. We are merely ensuring that our industries shall be given adequate protection, and we do not intend to allow them to be undermined by imports of. goods from cheap labour countries.''