WELL EQUIPPED FACTORIES

Evening Star, Issue 20020, 10 November 1928, Page 24

WELL EQUIPPED FACTORIES

HEW ZEALAND SECONDARY INDUSTRIES HANDICAPS SHOULD BE REMOVED. Tho following is an extract front a speech by Mr C. M. Moss, tho United Party candidate for Dunedin West, delivered in Burns Hall on Tuesday, October 30:— “ Tho development of our secondary industries on sound and scientific lines is a matter of such vital importance to the future welfare of the country that I know of no other matter outside of finance which is more deserving ot our serious consideration. .The present condition of our manufacturers is nothing short of appalling. Do you realise that many of our most promising manufacturing concerns are languishing almost to tho point of extinction because of tho legislative and other handicaps under which they are labouring ? Do you realise that our factories are, generally speaking, equipped with the most modern machinery that can bo procured in any part of the world? Do yon realise that tho New Zealand operatives are as capable and as conscientious in their work as tho operatives in any part of tho world? Do you realise that in factory accommodation, factory equipment, and manpower we have ample facilities to produce in many lines not only sufficient goods for our own requirements, but sufficient to leave us with an exportable surplus? And do you realise that many of these factories are not working up to 60 per cent, of their capacity, and some of them a good deal less? “ And you ask me why. I will tell you that it is because/ of tho callous indifference of the. Government to the welfare of these industries. Do you seriously mean to tell mo that there is any sens© in exporting our wool and hides to other countries so that tne manufacturers of these countries might make our raw material into woollen goods and boots and shoes that our own people require for their daily use, while our own factories qnd operatives aro starving? It will also be within tho recollection of most of yon how the Coates Government, by a stroke of the almost mihd lately y-jped, put p$

existence one of our most promising industries—that of coach and motor body-building. I could also tell you of the disastrous elFects on a branch of the engineering trade when the manufacturers of dairy supplies bad practically to go out of business on account of the unsympathetic attitude of the Government towards their industry. Can wo not, by the method of using a scientific Customs tariff so that the interests of all the parties interested will be protected, build up our secondary industries on sound and safe lines? “I hear some Jeremiah say that if we do that pi-ices will_ go up. That is not a logical conclusion to come to. If legislation along proper lines ns enacted the interests of the manufacturers, the worker, and the consumer will bo adequately safeguarded. If the matter is so simple, why is it that the Coates Government has neglected it? That is a question they must answer. They know the remedy as well as any man in the United Party does, but they will not take it, and they must pay the penalty, as others before them have paid, by being told to stand aside and allow others to do the work that they have failed to do.”