RAW MATERIALS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24738, 15 October 1941, Page 4

RAW MATERIALS

DELAY IN LICENCES SERIOUS POSSIBILITIES INDUSTRY RETARDED “Manufacturers have done a great job so far in supplying this country’s requirements since the beginning of the war,’’ said the president of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation (Mr C. V. Smith), at the annual meeting last night of the Dunedin Manufacturers’ Association. “ But they cannot be blamed if they have no raw materials.” Mr Smith was moving a vote of thanks to Mr J. G. Coates, who had come from Wellington to speak on the subject of the Lease and Lend Act, and its application to the Dominion as part of the British Commonwealth of Nations, and he took the opportunity of discussing it briefly from the manufacturers’ point of view. Manufacturers, he said, were more than worried at the shortage of raw materials, which was likely to be much more serious in 1942. There was a false impression abroad that import control had meant unlimited raw supplies of materials for manufacturers. If that had been the case, there would not be the shortage in many lines to-day. “Although, at the request of manufacturers, Mr Nash announced the sixth period schedule several months ago, thousands of licences have not yet been issued,” he continued. “In other cases licences have been issued for most of the materials required for a product; but the licence for some essential ingredient has been held up. Prices are still rising overseas and sources of supply are being cut off overnight, and it is no exaggeration to say that one day’s delay in placing an order has meant, and may continue to mean, weeks and months of delay in shipment, while the cost to the country runs into thousands of pounds. Unfortunately Government departments do not seem to understand this.

"The position is similar in the case of the Lease-Lend Act. Although this Act is a godsend to the Allied cause, any further* delay in operating the scheme may well prove disastrous to New Zealand.”