REVIVING INDUSTRY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 13 October 1932, Page 9

REVIVING INDUSTRY

SPIRIT OF CONFIDENCE REDUCED TAXATION NEEDED TARIFFS/AND EMPIRE TRADE The opinion that England had passed the lowest point of the depression and that the spirit of confidence which was already manifest would gradually develop throughout 1933 was expressed the other day by Mr W. P. Cross, of Northampton, England, a leading British industrialist who arrived in Auckland from Rotorua after an extensive tour of New Zealand (states the “Herald”). Mr Cross is a member of the executive of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire, the Federation of British Industries and the National Union of Manufacturers, and is connected with the tanning and leather industries. He is a prominent Rotarian. During the past two years weak and uneconomic industries had been gradually eliminated throughout the world, stated Mr Cross. Now, when wool and other commodities were firm in price or showing advances, it seemed that the success of the Ottawa Conference, combined with the settlement of war debts and which seemed probable, would liberate capital and assist to develop trade. “One thing is essential; taxation has to be reduced, and we must learn to cut the cost according to our cloth in social and other services,” continued Mr Cross. “However fine they are, we cannot afford them unless there is the money to pay for them, and when they begin to deprive industry of the money it so urgently needs and to create unemployment, it is high time we made a radical reconstruction of our ideas on taxation. There is only one thing that prevents it —the politician. The trouble is not confined to any one country; it is general all over the world. We have to pay a terrible price for politics. If we could eliminate politics for the next two or three years I am sure the world would regain its economic basis.” While he had always been a believer in tariffs and Empire trade, he felt that if an industry in any paid, of the Empire could not be carried on under sound economic conditions it should not be sheltered by tariff walls. A tariff of 25 per cent, should be sufficient to protect New Zealand industries. In conclusion, Mr Cross said that it would be to the advantage of manufacturers in New Zealand to send one of their number to England every three years to assimilate new ideas and to keep abreast of modern methods, while it might be advantageous to select apprentices from local factories to work for a period in England and bring back modern practice to the Dominion.