STEADY PROGRESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 22, 26 January 1940, Page 5

STEADY PROGRESS

AUSTRALIA'S RECORD

REVIEW BY SENATOR M CBRIDE

EFFECT OF WAR

Australia's progress, in primary and secondary industries was reviewed by Senator the Hon. P. A. Mcßride, Assistant .Minister of Commerce iii, the Federal Cabinet, at: a luncheon given1 tb-him by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce yesterday afternoon. He'spoke of the plans to absorb men who would be thrown upon the employment market after the war, the result lof which Australia had no doubt. • » . When the early settlers came to Australia,: said Mr. Mcßride, the country did not appeal to them greatly. It cqntained three million square miles, but oil© million square miles could-1 be discarded altogether as an economic factor, another million today had a low productive capacity,, and another million varied from fair to good country. Pastoral pursuits were naturally the; principal work of the early settlers, and today remained one of the chief - industries of the country, but since.the last war, because of intense' economic nationalism' and the closing.of markets, it was felt in Australia that a more balanced economy should be secured. The last war, gave immense opportunities for the establishment of secondary industries, which had since then expanded and had. increased the prosperity of Australia. One of the basic industries was that of iron and steel. Australia was, fortunate in having large and rich, deposits of both iron ore and coal;-; Though they, were not contiguous, . being about 1200 or 1400 miles, apart, they were accessible ~by sea, thus obviating the expense of land haulage. In- 1015 the Australian Government was"fortunate in getting the Broken HilltProprietary Company, which had previously been engaged, in mining, to •undertake; the establishment and conduct of the iron industry. The company had made continual progress and was the foundation of practically all the secondary industries of Australia: In 1920-21 • the output of pig iron -arid steel from the works was just over a million tons, and last year it 'was more than three million. Because^ of the needs of Australia and of .Great Britain the company was at present .erecting, another - blast furnace,, which would increase not only output, but efficiency,. as it was more econbmically situated. Despite the fact-'that the employees enjoyed a high standard of living, the company had been able to produce iron and steel at a cost-, lower than that of any other place : in the world, except for one plant ;iri India. "We know from experience," said Mr. Mcßride, "that we can not only < give our people a very high (standard of living, but can also produce the goods to meet competition from other partsi of the world." ' Mr;"^Mcßride; Sientiqned x also-; the efcve&pfi&iX 6l?^stfalia'#?t^tilerarid tyreV- industries.-. "We hjaye increased bur production of secondary products, he said, Vto; the extent that at the present time the total output is equal, to £500,000,000. annually," That was nearly-two and a half times the value of the,primary output, he explained, but the figure included the cost of raw.: material and processing. Factories employed 560,000 Australians. ■■■■ .IMMENSE WAR VALUE. / Secondary industries were of substantial benefit to Australia in times of peace, continued Mr. Mcßride, but they were of immense value in the present war. Before:it started Australia realised that she would be called iupbn to! a greater extent than ever before to look after her own defence, and consequently factories which nominally would not have come into being, until later were established some time ago. It .vas decided to establish aeroplane, factories early in the programme, and. this was done with thfe co-operation of existing Australian organisations,; of which the Broken Hill/Proprietary was one. As a result the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation recently started production of an aeroplane which was eminently suitable ior. the: advanced training of pilots and was at the same time a useful fighter for use- against the types of plane: that' could be launched from battleships and aircraft carriers. In the next month or six weeks they expected to reach an output of six of these-planes a week. In addition, there were factories for the manufac-ture-of a simpler machine for trainings purposes, .which was being turned out in quantities, and further factories were being established for the manufacture of a twin-engined machine of greater striking power. These factories would be of immense yalue not only to Australia, but to Great Britain and her Allies because of the assistance they would render to the Empire air training scheme- • ; AFTER THE CONFLICT. : The problems likely to arise when the war ended—and Australia; had no doubt as to the ultimate result of the conflict—were also "being studied by a section of the Federal Cabinet, known as-the Economic Cabinet. They wish-, ed ;to benefit by the mistakes made after the last war, and already they were making plans for the future. As an example, Mr. Mcßride quoted, though he said it might possibly. be premature, the proposal to manufacture motor-cars in Australia. Since 1936 he said, it had been considered that' Australia had.the resources, the artisans, and the market for cars made in Australia. Of course, for many years now a large proportion of the parts in the car, the bodies, springs, and chassis components had been made in Australia, but the result of the aeroplane manufacture had confirmed the opinion.that the time had arrived to make the whole car. Resistance was encountered from Anierican combines, which had a lucrative market in Australia, and this caused delay in the scheme, but an Australian organisation was formed and given an assurance from the Government that as. far as practicable it-would get the necessary protection and assistance, and, in addition, it had been promised the exclusive right to a bounty for five years. It was realised that a subsidy would- be necessary in the early stages, not because of any production, difficulties, but because of the prejudice which existed against locally-manufactured goods. It was this promised exclusive bounty that had aroused public criticism and might make his announcement premature, because if enough people objected'the Government would probably have to talce notice of them. But Mr. Mcßride hoped better counsels would prevail, as the proposed car industry was one in which it was hoped to absorb many men .from the fighting services after '■ the! war. ■•'.'•