COURAGE AND VISION

Grey River Argus, 22 August 1934, Page 5

COURAGE AND VISION

LORD BLEDISLOE On Industrial Expansion (Per press Association.) DUNEI . N. August 21. “What is importan at the presert crisis is to appreciate the position, and without wasting time in international recrimination or our physical energy in unwarrai table panic, to consider, so far as i< practicable, with a.'r’ minds, courageous hearts and long-sightel vision, the best methods of meeting it. frem the standpoint not of our own individual interests, but from that of the nation as a whole and of the welfare of all cias.es and occupational groups within it, bearing in mind that no purely personal or separatist advantage <an flow ultimately from national bankruptcy or impoverishment.” said Ihe Governor-General, Lord Bled isi e. in an address to the Dunedin Cham be •• of Commerce to-night. Lord Bledisloe said he could indicate, by citing a few examples, some of the directions in which New Zealand might reasonably be expected to expand her industrial activities. “First and foremost.’’ said His Exce’lenry. “I place your touri. t industry, a fertile source of nationa l wealth, which von have as vet barely

commenced to tap. and which, as it comes to be organised and co-ordinat cd by Co-operative efforts of steamship, road, railway, and air, should bring many millions of money into + his coun try, which, ib now diverted to other and less attractive parts of the world.’’ The Dominion’s timber plantations were a rapid’y-growing source of national wealth and if they wer e efficiently managed, adequately protected against insect and fungoid pests, and so planted with selected tre e varitie ; as to have primarily in view the special timber requirements of New Zealand industries, they "were likely to afford remunerative employment to a large and growing section of the rural population. The special value of the native beech to automobil e firms for motor-car bodies and for tennis racquets. and of many other New Zealand timbers to cabinet-makers by virtue of the beauty of their colour and grain, was beginning to be realised in Great Britain and other countries. If the export of Southland beech was proper ly developed, there would no doubt be large quantities of beech bark available for the manufacture of tannin extract, especially if that was supplemented by the bark of the kamahi. al though the timber of th e latter might be of but little commercial value The outlook for the commercial exploitation of petroleum in the vicinity of Gisborne and the more systematic development of the New Plymouth oil resources might be confidently expected. The prospects of commercially successful exploitation of oil-fields in the South Island were less certain although possibilities presented then* selves at Kotuku on the West Coast, as -well as Murchison, after further examination of the sub-soil structure.. Failing economic supplies of flow oil in the Dominion it might become necessary to have recourse ultimately to the hydrogenation of coal as a means of obtaining oil for Dominion requirements. There was a good prospect of obtaining asbestos from deocsits at Takaka and elsewhere in the Dominion, and shellite which was now commanding a high price, also gavs promi-e of profitable mining in Otago as well as Ni’kon and Marlborough. Geological n.a| ping an 1 geegrophieal surveys at present in progress foresha I »wed the beaten, with approximately accuracy, I of detrital gold deposits, -ml the opening up of now areas of go id exploitation uu th e boundaries of Otago and Souiiland were parti*.-ilu'v favourable

The revival of the once prosperous and lucrative kauri gum industry seemed likely to eventuate from the newly-discovered methods fo r utilising low-grade gum. Recent research connected in the Dominion, had demonstrated the fact that the oil extracted from the liver of the groper was 100 times richer in vitamin than the average cod liver oil. Another industry that appeared worthy of exploitation was the utilisation of surplus milk in the manufacture of casein for ladies’ dress buttons, sanitary wall coatings, glue for aeroplane construction, and the lining of butter boxes to obviate taint. Another (and more important) industry was the canning of meat. His Excellency suggested it might prove worth while for the New Zealand meat companies to combine in obtaining an experienced adviser with a view to the resuscitation of that trade on up-to-date lines. There was also scope for more small-scale industries, founded 'upon local domestic de mauds than existed at present. The surplus potato crop might also be used for the manufacture of alcohol which could be used for blending with petrol —a development that would probably necessitate a controlled marketing policy. “This,” said His Excellency, is but a hasty and ini perfect survey ou the part of a detached observer of a few of what wouM appear to be possible future industrial activities in this Dominion. I sincerely trust that in venturing to indicate them, my vision will not appear In the eyes of this audience of shrewd, short-minded. Scottish business men to be distorted or extravagently optimistic. Personally I know of no country whose climate and natural endowment conduce more to hope and confident enterprise.”

His Excellency urged his hearers to “bring brains into business.” It was recognised that a university training, if properly conducted. was an invaluable equipment for any vocation in life. “Utilise the university in the uplift cf utilitarian undertakings, without letting it become too directly utilitarian itself.”

“The Dominion sadly needed population to help in absorbing its industrial products and to spread over more shoulders the relatively heavy burden of its railways, electric, and

«ther national services. Apart from self-sustained non-exporting land settlers, potential employers from the Old Land, well equipped with the means of employment, would always merit a warm welcome, whether as residents or as industrialists

“Great Britain was passing through a transitional process of national and imperial economic re-arrangement which. although disturbing alike to herself and to those to whom she was most deeply attached by ties of sentiment, consanguinity, tradition and mutual obligation, seemed bound to eventuate in a new economic era and dispensation in which the British Empire would form an industrial Zollevereein, or inter-related trad egroup of na tions. each unit of which would, according to special fitness for an allotted task, safeguard and supplement the requirements of the rest, -and no part of the British brotherhood of nations would be permitted to wilt industrially. If the new fiscal fabric of Britain lacks artistic finish, if the plan in the throes of childbirth appears lopsided °r lacking in equitable balance, [ would venture to claim your patience, and above all y°ur sympathetic appreciation of the insistent difficulties which are for the moment confronting the Motherland from which you are sprung, confident, as yo-u ma v be, that she is sympathetically conscious of your own heroic struggle against ar economic blizzard of unprecedented severity and that in saving her own house from crumbling, she has no in tention whatever of wrecking that of a daughter she loves. Never in the world’s history was it mor ft necessary to maintain unshaken, indissoluble, and mutually trustful the great brotherhood of the British Empire, determined at all costs, to stand foursquare against the perils of aggressive interference from outside, and equally determined to adhere resolutely to the traditions of integrity and the ideals of righteousness which have built up’ the greatness of ouj race.’’