The Evening Star SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1928. AUSTRALIAN MANUFACTURES.

Evening Star, Issue 20020, 10 November 1928, Page 6

The Evening Star SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1928. AUSTRALIAN MANUFACTURES.

ACOOROINU to latest reports Australia has suddenly reduced her imports to a remarkable degree. This development is long overdue. The Commonwealth alone has a public debt of over EoOO,000,000, and when to this is added the indebtedness of the individual States the amount of money that has to be sent out of the country yearly to meet interest charges must he enormous. It is a generally accepted theory that a debtor nation, such as Australia is, must find its interest due overseas out of the surplus of exports over imports. But Australia has l)oen importing on such a scale that she shows a surplus of imports over exports. Clearly some change has become imperative, and it is possible that lower prices ruling this season for wool have had the effect ot making people think, and ol convincing them that the extravagance of the past cannot go on indefinitely. At a conference of Australian trades unions, held not long ago, a resolution was passed calling on its members to nipport a policy of preference to Austra-lian-made goods, and to use every endeavour to prevent imported goods or materials being used in connection with their employment. A move has been made by the trade unionists to canvass all manufacturers and trade associations with a view to coming to some working agreement. Australia’s determination to develop secondary industries is proclaimed by her high, sometimes prohibitive, Customs tariff. Evidently it is closing the door to a market hitherto greatly depended on by British manufacturers. Recently a Sydney firm received from a Bradford firm of worsted cloth manufacturers a letter stating:—“We are not going to continue to take these advances in tariffs lying down any longer. Tbo Bradford Chamber is sending a reasoned protest to Mr Bruce pointing out how necessary cheaper wool is to conform to the buying capacity of the world users, and how the Australian tariff policy is increasing the cost of production of wool. At the last meeting of the Halifax Chamber several speakers pointed out bitterly the uselessness of colonial preferences when the tariff was prohibitive in the first case, and also the irony of a country pleading Imperial sentiment for colonial produce while doing its utmost to knock us out by high tariffs.

Nevertheless Australia will not be deterred from fresh enterprises in the fielv, of manufacture. Even some of the lug importing houses, under stress of Customs taxation, arc beginning or extending local manufacturing activities. This is particularly noticeable in the electrical trade and the motor vehicle trade. At the last annual meeting of the Automotive Manufacturers’ Association the chairman said: “Imports into Australia of goods of the type manufactured by our members and classified by the Customs Department under such headings as chassis parts, vehicle parts, and springs for the twelve mouths ended May, 1038, were valued at'£l,3oo,ooo. This represents a vast field awaiting our exploitation, and there is no room for any ol us to complain of lack of trade prospects till w© meet and beat that flood ol imports. We are making a definite attack. Last year saw tremendous growth. There are no fewer than three spark plug manufacturers operating in Australia—all new firms. Battery manufacturers, who twelve months ago numbered four, now number nine in Sydney alone, cither operating or preparing to manufacture here. Petiol pump makers have increased in number to eighteen in Australia; Sydney possesses seven of them. During the year tumbler switches were made in Australia for the first time. The motor trade induced this move. One big firm alone buys 3,000 tumbler .switches per month for tail light purposes. . . • There is no doubt that the Australianbuilt motor car will come out of the continued development of the manufacture of the various units. New firms are being established every month in the trade, and everything but the engine and the chassis is already made here. The equipment ami replacement parts manufacturers are steadily increasing the number of chassis parts which they can make with efficiency and sell with profit. If the Government wishes to see an Australian-Built car it must give every possible encouragement to the parts, equipment, and accessory manufacturers.”

Australia began with the simplest section of car manufacture, body-build-ing. A start of tbc then new industry was assured, and advancement was stimulated, by the provision that so many chassis only should be admitted to the country for every ono complete car. Now it looks as though an allAustralian car is well on the road to achievement. Tho latest development is a proposal to set up a board of exports to give advice to those embarking on or already conducting now branches of secondary industry. It is recognised that in Australia secondary industries usually originate through tho enterprise of people who, while they may have some knowledge ot trade processes in the lines they undertake to manufacture, are sometimes deficient in organising experience, and hove only the haziest idea on other important phases of. design, structural work, and management. To supply those deficiencies would be the expert board’s task. It is marvellous that tho intractability of Australian trade unions has not destroyed the confidence of promoters of ventures involving big scale employment of labour. Perhaps the Australian manufacturer is an optimist, a word which has been defined as meaning a person who does not care what happens so long as it happens to anyone but himself. ■