New Government's Industrial Policy

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 74, 28 March 1936, Page 5

New Government's Industrial Policy

DEVELOPMENTS AWAITED BY MANUFACTURERS Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Last Night. Mr. D. Henry, Dominion president of tho New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation, in an interview before leaving lor Australia to-day, said the manufacturers’ organisation was vitally concerned with the Government’s industrial policy and would watch developments with a mixturo of hope and fear, for while manufacturers had every contideueo in the Government’s intention to safeguard and foster expansion of industry, there were certain dangers to be avoided if the final result was to be what was intended.

The chief danger was that the forthcoming industrial legislation would increase the cost of production in New Zealand industry to such an extent tnat it v'ould be impossible for New Zealand goods to hold their markets in competition with imported goods. If that were allowed to happen, it would be the greatest setback that Dominion industries had ever received.

Air. Henry hoped the Government was fully alive to this danger and realised that it would be necessary to make a tariff adjustment simultaneously with any measure which would increase the cost of producing New Zealand goods. This would not conflict with the Ottawa Agreement, which provided for equalisation of costs in the Dominion and Britain by means of the tariff and which would permit an increase in the tariff to balance an increase in New Zealand costs.