LANCASHIRE PROGRESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23500, 14 May 1938, Page 17

LANCASHIRE PROGRESS

RECOVERY FROM COTTON SLOW NEW INDUSTRIES BEGUN J (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) 5/ LONDON, Apl. 23. Lancashire’s efforts to overcome the poverty that beset her after th® collapse of her cotton prosperity are described in a report issued by the Lancashire Industrial Development Council. As against a decrease of 360 textile factories in the last few years, 1860 non-textile factories have entered production. Over 200 idle cot-) ton mills have been converted into factories for the making of other, r products, and work for 25,000 ha* been provided by new industries troduced by the Development Counrcil since its inception. . The value of factory and work- - shop plans approved by a selected number of local authorities in Lan- ; cashire and Cheshire has in six years from £392,000 to £1,257,000. Between 1932 and 1936; Lancashire showed the greatest in-; dustrial expansion of any district;) outside Greater London. “Probably the greatest achieve-) ment of all,” states Mr J. Bennett; Storey, the council's general man-;’; ager, “is the emergence of a new ' spirit of optimism- and confidence - which is most conspicuous among;) the workers themselves. Towns.-; which formerly depended upon,; cotton have turned the corner, and* surplus labour and empty the two spectres',of the recent past,,;; are now proving valuable attract) tions to industry to locate new fao«tories and undertakings in this part), of the country.”