MORE INDUSTRIES

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 53, Issue 32425, 1 May 1944, Page 6

MORE INDUSTRIES

NEEDED IN SMALL TOWNS MORAL ASPECT DEPLORED TRANSFER OF YOUNG PEOPLE The moral aspect of the transfer of young people from their home towns to obtain employment was mentioned by Mr J. Thorn, M.P., at the annual meeting of the Thames Chamber of Commerce. The development of secondary industries in this town, according to the move recently made by the Thames Borough Advisory Committee, was also discussed. No proper reconstruction could be carried out unless there was a dispersal of the industries of the country, said Mr Thorn. That was not going to be easy to accomplish. There would bo opposition from big interests in Auckland and Wellington, which wanted the industries there, though, as Mr A. L. Burk. Borough Commissioner, had truthfully said earlier in the’ meeting, the location of so many industries in those centres had already created huge problems. Mr Thorn said he had lately been impressed with the moral aspects . of this question. What happened in a place like Paeroa, for instance, where there were no industries for the cliil-

. dren? Here in Thames there were opportunities for boys and girls, but in some other towns they had to leave the parental roof and work at empl 'yment. receiving wages which were inadequate for the purpose of keeping them. Their parents still had to keep them, but. they had to live away from home at a time when they were iri need of parental guidance. Young girls sent to Wellington hail no guidance and all sorts of temptations, said Mr Thorn. As far as the development of industries was concerned, he said he would like to see a strong movement in Thames taking a common-sense view of this matter, with wide and active support for any move of the Government. I “I do not subscribe to the view that at, the end of the war factories in this town will collapse and there will b« a slump again.” said Mr Burk. That was a defeatist view, he added. The aim of everyone who had the interest of the town at heart should be the.introduction of fresh capital into it. Wartime Decentralisation Au outstanding example of the wartime decentralisation of industry had recently been provided at Wanganui. The location of many industries in the big cities had been a great strain on the services of these cities. In Thames and other- similar towns social, services were not being used to the full capacity, and a much greater use could be made of them. It industries could be established here there was water for them, and road, rail and sea transport, the latter not exploited to anything like the manner it could be. The future of this town lay in everyone getting behind such a movement.