NEW ZEALAND’S INDUSTRIES

Evening Star, Issue 21722, 17 May 1934, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND’S INDUSTRIES

ROTARY CLUB ADDRESS An interesting address, embodying the aims of Industries Week, which is at present being held in Dunedin, was given by Mr A. E. Mander, secretary of the New Zealand Manufacturers Federation, at a luncheon given by the Rotary Club at the Savoy to-day. Mr Mander introduced his subject by remarking that many people seemed to think that the manufacturing industries were quite small compared with the primary industry of dairy farming,’ which was often alluded to as the “ essential industry.” From the latest available official figures, however, it would be seen that there were almost exactly the same number or persons engaged in the manufacturing industries as there were iu dairy tanning. The speaker went on to refer to the enormous range and variety which this country’s manufactured goods embraced, and expressed the view that thousands of people did not know or the many articles which were produced. For instance, was it generally recognised that more than halt of all the lawn mowers sold in the dominion were actually made here; that fourteen out of eighteen pairs of men’s and women s boots and shoes sold were New Zealandmade; and that almost every article of attire was manufactured by New Zealand skilled artisans? Of course, many of these manufactured lines were made from imported raw material, but even so the cost of material accounts was only about 30, or at the most, 40 per cent, of the finished manufactured Approximately half of our British imports to-day consisted of materials to he used bv our own manufacturing industries, said Mr Mander, who remarked that Britain would not gam as much as some people imagined it our manufacturing industries in New Zealand were abolished. In conclusion, the speaker cited reasons ' for buying New Zealand-made woods, and pointed out that it was a patriotic duty, and also “ good business ” to support one’s own country in its endeavours to further its interests.