Removing Industry’s Fetters

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 7031, 15 December 1932, Page 6

Removing Industry’s Fetters

Addressing the British Chamber of Commerce the president, Sir Walter Kiffe, said it was a matter for regret that export trade showed a shrinkage, but that was to be expected. No improvement could take place until the bargaining power now possessed was used to reduce the tariffs which other nations placed against our exports. “We are now free to enter into arrangements with other nations who are, for the first time within living memory, seeking to discuss such agreements with us. Our unemployment figures give cause for anxiety. The improvement in our national trade balance indicates that had it not been for our tariff policy, the figures would have been much worse. Personally, I am hopeful for the future and I look for a considerable reduction immediately industry is in a position to finance its operations. The new conditions which now obtain justify our manufacturers in bringing their works up to date and in undertaking extensions to their enterprises in many directions. Such extensions, however, are not usually embarked upon if they have to be financed by means of bank overdrafts, and the embargo placed by the Treasury on new industrial issues makes it impossible to raise the necessary capita] in any other way. This embargo was, no doubt, necessary to ensure the success of the conversion operation, but the sooner it is removed the sooner will new schemes be launched and unemployment reduced. We may assuredly claim that we have made solid progress during the past year. Much, of course, still remains to be done, but we have freed ourselves of our fetters, and although we shall, no doubt, meet with some discouragement and disappointments during the coming year, I believe the turning-point has been passed and that, we can look to the future with confidence.”