DOMINION INDUSTRIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22268, 22 May 1934, Page 9

DOMINION INDUSTRIES

DAIRYING AND SECONDARY

COMPARISON OF PRODUCTION.

(Special to Dailt Times;)'

WELLINGTON, May 21.

Replying to -Mr' James Begg's criticism of his statement in which a comparison was instituted between the dairying arid manufacturing industries . with respect to the number of employees ;and the output of each. Mr A. E. Mahder, general secretary of the New Zealand Manafacturers' Federation stated to-day Jt—" •'". "The full report of my .address explained, why the comparison was. made. I said: i' We have all heardithat dairying is our essential industry ■ and many people seem to imagine that the manufacturing ■ industries are quite small and unimportant in comparison. - It may surprise some people to-learn' that-even in 1929, the last year before the, slump, there were almost exactly the same number/ of persons engaged in the manufacturing indutries as >thereV were in dairy farming (including/ farmers, workers, and working members 'of farmers' own families). The statistics will be found on page 371 of the 1932 Year Book.'

"I went on to compare bur' exports of butter arid' cheese with the value of the manufactured goods we produced. In 1929, for instance,- we exported £20,250,000 of butter and. cheese, while the output of the inanufacturing industries amounted to £43,000,000 (of which the 'added value' alone was nearly £25,000,000). Last year, we exported butter and cheese worth £16,416,000* while our manufacturing industries produced goods worth £30,090,000 (of which £18,200,000 was the ' added value.') This comparison is not made with any thought of minimising the importance of dairy farming in our national economy: it is made simply in order to give a more; balanced view of the relative importance'.. of. the various branches of productive industry. "Some of Mr Begg's other observations, such as his dogma that the test of efficiency is the ability to export, are mere rubbish. A country may export its surplus, but it would be absurd to think of exporting any goods before even the domestic market is being fully supplied. Finally, it is surely ridiculous to suggest that manufacturing industries, to prove their efficiency,ought to be able to compete in a market open to the world without tariff protection. Are all Britain's own manufacturing industries proved to be inefficient by the fact that they need a tariff protection of 20 per cent, to 50 per cent, in England, and also a preference of 20 per cent, to 30 per cent, in the New Zealand market to enable them to compete with foreigners?',' "Of course they are not, and our own dairying industry is not proved to be inefficient by the'.. fact that it receives a tariff preference of approximately 20 per cent, .on all the butter it .sends to England in competition with Danish butter."