IRON INDUSTRY PROPOSAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22975, 1 March 1938, Page 10

IRON INDUSTRY PROPOSAL

By the terms of what the Prime Minister has said on the subject, it is not clear that the Government intends to embark on the iron industry as a State enterprise. It is thus possible to hope that the bill, which he said would appear within the next two weeks, will not commit the Government to anything so hazardous. To look back over the history of attempts to establish the industry in New Zealand gives no encouragement to expect that it could be made to pay. It has been all struggle with no reaii success, and even generous State assistance has not enabled operations to be conducted at a profit. The case for the Onakaka Company—or rather, the debenture-holders, since it was then :in liquidation—was put before the Tariff Commission in 1933, but the subsequent report was not favourable. If such were the circumstances then, it is impossible to see how production could be made to pay now with shorter hours and higher wages imposed by legislation. The Government is known to have been investigating prospects, and it may have discovered the reasons for the difficulties and failures of the past. •Without definite evidence that it has done so, and that it has discovered the formula for future success, it seems highly unlikely that the industry has any more hopeful outlook under present conditions than in the past. Australia is producing steel so cheaply, on a large scale, that the chances of a New Zealand industry competing are very slender. There may be a temporary '.shortage of supplies, but there is certainly nothing apparent that would justify the Government committing itself to any considerable expenditure on the iron industry.