A LEAD WANTED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 136, 6 December 1939, Page 12

A LEAD WANTED

LOCAL INDUSTRIES

SUPPLY OF LABOUR

TARIFF AND IMPORTS

Problems facing the manufacturers of New Zealand Vere reviewed by Mr. H. B. Duckworth, president, when addressing the annual conference of the New Zealand Manufacturers' Federation today. Mr. Duckworth said that if the war continued for any length of time and New Zealand was given an opportunity to send a force overseas, it would at once become plain that the immediate problem under war conditions would? be to do more work with fewer men—and to produce more to pay for the enormously greater ex» penditure made necessary in « period of war. " ' The manufacturers, continued - Mr. Duckworth,; had been anxiously awaiting a lead from the Government- in the matter of the expansion of the supply of labour, especially in .those industries which were already meeting heavy demands for war .supplies and equipment. "If the Government will give us the requisite lead, I am sure that, by co-operation and a spirit of give-and-take, employers and workers will be able to arrive at a reasonable basis for, action," said Mr. Duckworth. "For our part, we must be fair —we must be moderate." "OMNIBUS" TARIFF ITEMS. Discussing exchange control and import selection, Mr. Duckworth :- said that until the items in the tariff which included a great number of articles under the one classification ("omnibus" items) were, divided up, it would be almost impossible to administer import selection effectively. Control was — irksome enough at any .time,,but when all administrative' details must - pass across the desk of one man,"the position became impossible. "All' our work oh behalf of the manufacturing industries must be related to.' the at-= tairtment of the highest standard of .•living possible in: this country,": Duckworth said. "I do not; think, that there is a sufficiently general realisation of the'fact that, of ~the< countries in. a class comparable to herself, New Zealand islin probably the Jmost vulnerable position of all. Until-we actually possess an iron and" steel industry, our natural resources (apart from coal .and power) v ar» only agricultural and pastoral products, with practically ho mineral or 'other resources of any kind. Outside of these agricultural and pastoral pro- , ducts we have to import almost all ctir requirements, and these are obtained from the proceeds of our primary pro=. ducts, which, of all goods, are the most sensitive to the vagaries of a violently fluctuating" price. So long as the populations in the. countries of the Old World were increasing, and so long as, those countries had not embarked on a policy of encouragement of their own agriculture, we were doing fairly well, and were paying little -heed ti> the possibility of dangerous changes in national policies. Of recent years, New Zealand has had only .one real market for her primary produce^ and that is the United Kingdom.".. - a turning poiaer^ A British White • -Paper' had stated that the United Kingdom must encour- • age and expand her own agricultural industries, and that the Dominions must increase their population" in the only direction possible, namely, by the expansion of their-manufacturing industries. That' decision marked a turning point in the history of New Zealand's economic progress. Only an. optimist would say that; over a period of years, we could expect to be able to afford to import an-,: average of £ 40,000,000 per annum. ? We? were importing many millions more' than that amount today. Accordingly* we must get every penny of value out of bur , exports in the future by importing nothing if it could be made in New Zealand, instead of frittering away our export-proceeds as in the past. "I must, therefore, ask the question, 'Will tariffs do this?'" Mr. Duckworth proceeded. "Will even specific tariffs do ■it in the face of Japanese labour at one, penny per hour, and also in the face of the distinguishing, characteris; tic of New Zealand's national-economy —eternally rising costs, the only phenomenon known to. man which defies the law of gravity, in that costs continue to rise when everything else is [falling? "For these reasons, I say that New Zealand will be compelled from now on to import no finished, article if the materials comprising it can be imported with less drain on our sterling exchange funds. "Finally, I suggest that delayed payment for our imports must go and be replaced by a system where we can guarantee our suppliers payment in full, say, in 120 days, otherwise we will be faced with a condition that w» will have far more money in circulation in New Zealand than can reasonably be related to the quantity .of goods available. Sufficient exchange must be made available for 1941 requirements of industry, otherwise the unemployment problem will become greater than ever before. We rely on the Government to see that those industries who have expanded in accordance with the encouragement given will shortly find that their actions have been just* fied." ./ ■'