Building Up N.Z. Secondary Industries

Northern Advocate, 20 February 1939, Page 5

Building Up N.Z. Secondary Industries

“The import restrictions are for the purpose of building up New Zealand secondary industries,” said the Minister of Public Works, Hon. R. Semple, when speaking to a large gathering in the Madeira Hall, Whangarei. “For many years New Zealand has been thinking in terms of butterfat, but. the country cannot go on for ever thinking on those lines,” he continued. “Our secondary industries must be brought up to standard. "A number of people have made money by dumping goods into New Zealand. They have brought Japanese goods into the country, making

less work for Dominion industries and thereby creating unemployment. “The young men and women of the Dominion have been robbed of their heritage. “The Government is stopping this stuff from coming into the country, and, by creating new jobs, is going to make New Zealanders a, contented people.

Political Laboratory.

“New Zealand is the political laboratory of the world,” he continued. “All the eyes of the world are on us. “Everything that is being done in this country is for the majority, and those who are growling are those who have taken the most from it in the past while ‘ contributing the least. These people are going to get nothing more from the qountry. “If they get in my road I will run them down with a bull-dozer!” concluded Mr Semple in a burst of picturesque oratory. Tumultuous Welcome.

There was a large crowd at the hall to afford Mr and Mrs Semple a tumultuous welcome to Whangarei. The president of, the Whangarei branch of the Labour Party, Mr D. L. Ross, extended hearty greetings on behalf of the gathering, while other speakers were Mr J. G. Barclay, member for the district, and Mr A. A. Magee, president of the Marsden Labour Representation Committee.

Prior to the gathering, Mr Semple spent half an hour at the Whangarei Men’s Club.