Truth A THREATENED INDUSTRY.

NZ Truth, Issue 353, 30 March 1912, Page 4

Truth

A THREATENED INDUSTRY.

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SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 1912.

Barrugh Barrack for Bull.

The demand of the Wellington Woollen Mills Employees' Union for a substantial all-round increase m wages, with a further suggestion that the award should be made a Dominion one, should make the workers of New Zealand think hard upon a proposal to place high protection m the forefront of the Labor platform. Every rise m wages means increase m the cost of production, and when the local manufacturer attempts to compete with the article produced by the scabwaged Britisher and foreigner under an inadequate tariff ike -New , Zea-

land industry goes to the wall, and it reminds one of baling- a boat with the plug out, or sweeping back the ocean with a common domestic broom, like a lady named Partington. At present there is a twenty per cent, duty on textiles, felts, and all kinds of piece goods, whilst 25 per cent, is imposed on wearing apparel. Frequently, however, the British and foreign operative receives m wages 40 per cent., and even 50 per cent, less than the New Zealander, with the result that •• this fair land •is swamped with the sweated article, New Zealand goods are undersold and New Zealand industry receives a violent blow on the point. The fight has about entered the twentieth round now, and as the men m the Dominion's corner threaten to apply chloroform instead of cokl water, it is probable that local industry will be counted out m the | twenty-first. • • ■ The importation of woollen goods has leaped from £899,129 m 1900 to £1,835,320 m 1911, or 104 per cent., increase, .and this country is the poorer by the latter amount, which would give employment to a large number of New Zealanders at an adequate wage. If the increase m wages demanded is acceded to (and there is no reason why it should not be under high protection), the New Zealand manufacturer will be still further, handicapped m the competition with goods produced 'by white slavery, and there is a. danger that the Wellington Woollen Mills Employees' Union will receive no wages at all, beca.use there will be no industry left to pay wages. It will be collared by a bowelless crowd of persons fourteen thousand miles -away, and, m the absence of competition, the said crowd will proceed to put up the prices. So that we shall have the satisfaction of knowing that we have not only robbed our own countryman of his job, but will also pay through the nose for things we import. Then the New Zealand operatives will hang about the cities earning a precarious crust by holding horses, or carrying people's parcels of imported articles, or lumping the imported articles on the wharf or at the railway station, or, m a general way of speaking, cutting down wages m. the few occupations left. • • s> m > What is wanted, of course, is a thumping heavy tariff to ENTIRELY SHUT OUT the million and a"quarter pounds' worth of woollens (which are not pure woollens .m any case) imported to this country, when we will not only have the. articles by making them ourselves, but will also have the money we used to send out of the country for them. Unfortunately, amongst other nuisances with which New Zealand is cursed, is an unpatriotic mob who have no use for anything manufactured m /the counixy that furnishes them with a fat living. According to a recent telegram, a warning note was sounded at a meeting of the Auckland Executive of the N.Z. Farmers' Union. It appears that British-made goods are being ousted by the foreign article, and one Barrugh, of Waikato, stressed the necessity of bigger support of English-made goods m New 'Zealand. He pointed out that we obtained all our money from England, and yet a great deal of it went to buy foreign-made goods. It was unanimously decided to get into touch with the British Trade Commission. Not a word, be it noted, of New Z-ealand goods. The reference to the fact that we get all our money from Britain is wildly hilarious, but it is something of a novelty to find thatbecause Britain has got this country m pawn and is sucking the life blood out of it m interest, we should assist the pawnbroker further by buying Ris goods m preference to our own. New Zealand makes her wealth out of what she produced, Britain out of what she lends ; but Britain is entirely dependent on New Zealand and other countries for the food she eats, and as New Zealand and similar countries increase m population and serve their own manufacturing citizens with food and clothing, the exports to "Britain will fall off, and Britain, will have to pay more for them ; and as her people are unable to pay any more for food because the job they used to have has been given to the foreigner, something will have to happen, and perhaps the present coal strike is a fore-runner of the happening. The' screaming humorousness of the Auckland "Backbone's" suggestion, that foreign goods should be ousted m favor of English ditto, lies m the fact that Britain is the biggest importer of foreign goods m the world, and for that reason has also the biggest poverty problem of the globe.