DOMINION INDUSTRIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21998, 6 July 1933, Page 8

DOMINION INDUSTRIES

DEVELOPMENT POSSIBILITIES SEVERAL NEW SUGGESTIONS ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY (Pee United Press Association.) AUCKLAND, July 5. The Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, in an address at the opening of the Auckland Winter Exhibition to-night said that the eyes of farmers, manufacturers, traders and transporters throughout the world were to-day turned towards London expectantly and anxiously. Never was it more vital to the prosperity of this Dominion, he said, to emphasise the profound truth of the economic doctrine of the essential mutual interdependence of rural and urban trade interests. The avoidance of domestic in dustrial strife dliring this critical period in New Zealand’s history was a/tribute to the sanity, public spirit, and selfrestraint of both employers and employed, meriting the gratitude of all true patriots. Strikes or lock-outs in existing circumstances would be a national disaster. Mutual harmony and co-ordinated vision were not less essential as between the primary and secondary producers, between Great Britain and this Dominion, and between the two races dwelling in our midst. NEED FOR GREATER POPULATION. There was plenty of scope for the due development and maintenance on a sound economic basis of appropriate secondary industries in New Zealand. But to uo section of the producers was it more vital to do everything possible to augment the lamentably small population of The Dominion, -if only to provide an adequate domestic outlet for manufactured products. Especially would he commend to their sympathy the establishmeut, after due training, upon some of the presently wasted but potentially fertile areas of several thousand small settlers owning their own land and winning from it, as they could, at least two-thirds of their sustenance requirements without any appreciable competition in the matter of export with the ordinary commercial farmer. The accomplished Maori people should furnish a much larger quota to this category than they do at present, and in this connection the Native Minister (Sir Apirana Ngata) is displaying farsighted energy. TRANSPORT LOAN INCIDENT.

"An unfortunate incident has happened,” proceeded his Excellency, “through what appears to be a mis understanding in connection with the discharge of certain financial obligations due from the Transport Board of Auckland to British investors. I know I am voicing the views of all responsible citizens, not only in Auckland but throughout New Zealand, when I say there is no part of the British Empire where there is a deeper sense of the sanctity of contract or a stronger determination, even under adverse economic conditions, to discharge to the full, in the spirit as well as in the letter, any financial obligation entered into with the people of the Mother Country. That the good credit of this ultra'British dominion should be affected by this untoward incident is unthinkable. "Confidence is of the very essence of industrial revival and extended employment. As between New Zealand and her ever-generous Motherland, any lack of confidence or any acute controversy over their mutual trade relations cannot be seriously contemplated as it would be fraught with alarming possibilities for the future of the Dominion. Never were overtures and gestures of goodwill on both sides more opportune or moit likely to prove commercially advantageous. The natural desire that the British farming community should be conceded a bare livelihood and the British factory workers means to purchase adequate food and other necessaries of life does not involve in the long run the reduction by a single hundredweight of New Zealand’s output of meat, cheese, butter, fruit, or honey so long as the quality is uniformly high and comparable with those of her legitimate competitors.” SUGGESTED NEW INDUSTRIES.

His Excellency said that several new inventions and processes in New Zealand opened up a good prospect of successful commercial exploitation. These included plastic moulded goods, for the production of which purified kauri gum and native-grown camphor of the right variety might come in useful; also walllining material made from native flax, as well as woolpacks and possibly also cellulose from the same raw material, fish by-products, portable mills for the small-scale extraction of mine products, briquette manufactures from raw slack coal, wheat malt for improving flour, wattle growing for making tannin extract for tanning leather, and the production of tung oil in the far north if the proper - soils, strains, and cultivation methods were employed. BEAUTY OF DOMINION TIMBERS.

Referring to the competition for furniture made of New Zealand timbers, his Excellency said: u of your native timbers are not excelled in beauty of grain and colour by those of any other country in the world, but like the scenic beauties of your incomparable landscape they are insufficiently known, even in this Dominion where relatively inferior imported timbers are often given unmerited preference. Rumours reach me of the prospect of some of your fastdisappearing totara being converted into pulp. Could not some of the best of it find a more dignified outlet and remain a joy to contemplate in the homes of the people? “The fame which South Island silver beech is achieving in the motor trade abroad might similarly be won by such timbers as rewa rewa,- puriri, and totara in that of domestic equipment.” CHEESE AND PORK EXPORT.

Commenting on the display of samples of cheese of the different nationalities which compete with New Zealand cheese in the British market, Lord Bledisloe said: “ Cheese is one of New Zealand’s products which at times has been subjected to adverse criticism at Home, but which, considering the ideal natural conditions surrounding its production, should have no serious rivals in quality, even allowing for the long-distance transport to its chief market. If there are remediable defects in our cheese or other primary products do not let us complain of the honest criticism of our best customers, but after due investigation into their causes quietly and resolutely set to work to remedy them.” Continuing, Lord Bledisloe said there was every indication that there would be a growing demand in Britain at remunerative prices for the right type of bacon and porker pigs, but it must be the . right type. “This exhibition,” he concluded, “ affords abounding evidence of local talent, ingenuity, and achievement which should inspire all good citizens with the confident hope of! this country’s future progress and prosperity.”