Manawatu Daily Times WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1924. What New Zealand Needs.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 2393, 11 June 1924, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Times WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1924. What New Zealand Needs.

It is pleasing: to learn on the authority of the Hon Dovvnie Stewart that New Zealand's secondary industries are steadily growing. Speaking at the opening of the Otago Winter Show last week the Minister of Customs pointed out that during last year over 150 new industrial establishments had been set up employing 3500 extra hands with a wage bill of nearly £IOO,OOO. If, he continued, we were to avoid having all our eggs In one basket it was important that these secondary industries should be fostered so that when there came a time of depression in the primary industries there might, be other strings to our bow, and other sources of in. dustry to which we might refer. It would bo interesting to have a definition by the Minister of what he means by the terms "secondary” and "primary industries. A Blue Book containing a statistical report on the industrial manufacture of the Dominion includes statistics relating to meat freezing and preserving, ham and bacon curing, butter and cheese manufacture, grain milling, saw.mllling and sash and door making, gas making and supply, electricity generation and supply, electric tramways, stone and lime crushing, tanning, fellmongerlng, and wool-scouring, and other Industries which, while in a sense manufacturing and secondarydo not seem to be in quite the same class as the manufacture of clothing, boots and shoes, pianos, glass ware, matches and many other things

The Price. The last Year Book shows that be. tween 1900-1 and 1921-22 the number of productive employees in the meat freezing and preserving industry increased from 2221 to 7958, or 255 per cent, and in the manufacture or butter, cheese, and condensed milk from 1221 to 3456, or 186 per cent, while the products of these two industries increased in the same period from £5,255,625 to £25,534,065, These industries require no protection. The boot and shoe making industry, to take a typical manufacturing indus. try, employed 2696 persons in 1900-1 and 2312 in 1921-22, a decrease of‘2o per cent. But the output increased In the same period from £529,254 to £l,310,059. But what price are we paying lor such an industry? Certainly the heavy protection afforded makes the price of footwear a very heavy tax on the community. The industry which has shown the greatest growth in the period referred to is that of mo. tor engineering, in which the numner of productive employees has increased irom 395 to 2019, or 411 per cent, but that was in its infancy in 1900. It has, however, been a natural growth, not fostered to any great ex. tent by a protective tariff, being principally engaged in repair work.. The whole question, however, is much bigger and broader than the few figures quoted by the optimistic Minister. Everyone will agree that the need’ ia there. But not everyone will agree that the statistics reveal a healthy state of affairs, and quite a few will say that we can pay too great a price for planting some factories In our midst.