PATIENCE URGED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 45, 23 February 1939, Page 14

PATIENCE URGED

DELIVERY OF ORDERS

NEW ZEALAND INDUSTRIES

MINISTER'S APPEAL

An appeal to traders and manufacturers to give New Zealand factories reasonable time to produce and deliver goods was made by the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, in a statement issued today. The Minister said by custom and through necessity it had been and still was the practice for wholesalers, retailers, and even domestic manufacturers themselves to allow considerable time for delivery when placing orders for goods of. all kinds that were to come from overseas. When these same traders and manufacturers placed orders in New Zealand they appeared to expect that their requirements should be waiting on the shelves of the local factory and that they should be available without any delay whatever. ASSISTING THE CHANGE-OVER. "I ask such buyers, is this fair and reasonable?" Mr. Sullivan continued. "If trade is not to be seriously interrupted by the change-over from certain imports to the use of goods produced in the Dominion, reasonable time must be given to our domestic factories to produce and deliver orders, j I have been advised that some retailers are already realising' their duty in this respect and helping by ordering locally on an indent basis. I "The request that I am making will, , I feel sure, be regarded as a most reasonable proposition as between fel- i low New Zealanders, and simply amounts to doing unto our own manufacturers what we do for those overseas. If all distributors want their orders delivered at once, and there is a tendency for retailers to expect this just now, they will embarrass local manufacturers unduly." i CONTACT WITH FEDERATION. Secondly, said the Minister, manufacturers who had not made contact with the New Zealand Federation of Manufacturers in Wellington, or their local associations in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, and elsewhere, should do so immediately, because the Government was making its contacts in relation to expansion of existing units through the federation, the subsidiaries of which were the local associations or' industry groups. Already about 80 groups had been in conference with the Department's special Industries Committee. Thirdly, so that there would not be confusion or overlapping regarding the importation of raw, or semi-manufac-tured, materials for local manufacturers, it would make for more efficient and speedy administration and prevent overlapping and lengthy investigations if manufacturers would continue to order their overseas requirements through the agents, importers, or merchants who had been accustomed to supply them iin the past. It was, again, only fair that where a firm had made certain overseas connections and had rendered a satisfactory service, it deserved consideration and a continuation as far as possible of its business.