WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21086, 21 January 1932, Page 12

WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE.

Sir, —The advocates of a vigorous land policy to settle the country's troubles are labouring under a dangerous obsession. I submit that any great expansion of our primary industries is, under present economic conditions, neither possible nor desirable. All our staple exports aro down to a starvation level, with insistent indications that even lower prices may bo anticipated under the ever-increasing pressure of intense competition. Where, then, is the justification to spend millions to stimulate the production of unwanted commodities? It should be recognised that increased production of primary products no longer means increased returns; the increase only goes into consumption by depreciating the valuo of the whole. The Government is confronted with practically 50,000 unemployed potential workers. Putting the valuo of the labour of each of those at £2 a week, surely a low estimate, every ten weeks £1,000,000 is lost to the country, or £5,000,000 a year. These men can be made once more an asset to the country by tho Government, the capitalists and tho people concentrating in a great and supreme effort to establish a new national industry. The growing of wool was for many years New Zealand's foremost activity, and even at to-day's depressed valuo it ranks as the second of our exports. The greater portion of our wool is shipped to other countries to be there manufactured, tho price obtained for the raw material being a mere fraction of the ultimate value realised. Why do we not secure those added values by manufacturing our own raw material and employing our own idle hands ? We have already several well-equipped factories turning out a limited quantity of woollen goods, the quality of which is admittedly unsurpassed. Visitors from overseas eagerly secure blankets and rugs when opportunity offers. Is it too much to hope that, properly directed, a big foreign market could be developed, where the whole of our produce would be profitably absorbed ? Could not the present factories, with the support of the Government, be developed into one huge cooperative manufacturing undertaking, ultimately absorbing the wholo of our unemployed labour in something where permanent results would accrue, instead of frittering away millions in so-called relief work and getting nowhere, except finally on the rocks? J. G. Browne. Mercury Bay.