THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1948. SANITY IN SIGHT?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26692, 11 February 1948, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1948. SANITY IN SIGHT?

For some years now the economic stability of this country has been t threatened by a top-heavy structure „ of secondary industry out of all '■ proportion to the capacity of the nation’s resources in labour or raw materials to support. This structure has been the deliberate creation of the Government, which has provided props in the form of subsidies, tariff protection, the selective control of "imports and, during the war, the direction of labour. - The latter principle is retained in the >; Government’s scheme of - assisted immigration, but neither it nor the other extraneous and artificial aids can conceal the basic weaknesses of this policy of over-cultivated industrialisation. It has been left for the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr Nordmeyer, to confess belatedly, and ambiguously, that the policy has its pitfalls. Addressing the delegates

to the annual conference of the mew > Zealand Manufacturers’ Association Mr Nordmeyer said that the protection afforded to certain industries under the Industrial Efficiency Act would be withdrawn. The reason for this action, he added, was that the industries concerned were now able to fend for themselves but at a later stage in J his speech he admitted that industry had outstripped the Dominion’s man-power resources and because of the present shortage of ... labour and materials it would be wise if no further industrial enter- ‘ prises were encouraged at the present time. In view of the marked obsession of the Labour Government, ever ■’ since it took office, with the belief that intensive industrialisation was the panacea for all social and economic ills, Mr Nordmeyer’s confession is a novel one. Throughout a period that'has seen the country’s farmlands, hospitals and educational and other institutions drained of their minimum requirements of labour in order to meet the insatiable demands of industry the Daily Times > has consistently drawn public atten- : tion to this disturbing trend in the national economy, and now that the Government, through the Minister of Industries and Commerce, has admitted that these warnings were well founded, it may not be too much to hope that a comprehensive and intelligent review of New Zealand’s industrial requirements will be undertaken. A considerable amount of efficient secondary industry is indispensable to the economy of New Zealand, and there are some industries for which security and other considerations make some

Measure of protection desirable. The ~ fundamental fact remains unaltered, ; however, that New Zealand is primarily a food producing country, ■_ and the whole basis of its economy, " its wealth and its development in the predictable future rests on its i ability to maintain a vigorous and progressive primary industry. All over the world people are starving, and the world population is increasing as rapidly as the earth’s fertility is declining. Until some practical means has been evolved of exploiting the equatorial regions which, up to the present, have of necessity been comparatively neglected, there will be a mounting demand on New Zealand and other fertile countries to supply food for the workers of the thickly populated regions—workers whose only economic outlet is the , manufacture of goods which New Zealand cannot match in quality or price. • In these countries New Zealand’s primary produce will have a permanent and assured market, and secondary industry which draws on the natural resources of the , country is a logical concomitant in a balanced economy. While these flourish, the country will prosper and will support without strain a variety of lesser concerns; but any policy aimed at fostering the growth, of uneconomic industry to the detriment of the basic sources of wealth must invite disaster in the end.