DOMINION POTTERY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27274, 28 December 1949, Page 7

DOMINION POTTERY

QUALITY IMPROVING COMPETITIVE PRICE RANGE Various items of New Zealand-made pottery and ceramic ware can now be purchased at prices below those of similar quality imported articles. A plumber can purchase a locally-made lavatory pan or wash-basin at 45s 6d, whereas the similar article imported costs him 52s to 535.

“The people of the Dominion must be given the facts,” said Mr D. I. Macdonald, secretary of the New Zealand Pottery and Ceramic Manufacturers’ Association. “ New Zealand quality is improving all the time. Scientific production control, continued research on local clays, the introduc* tion of skilled overseas potters and experts, and the training of New Zealand operatives is taking care of quality, which any unbiased person will admit has improved tremendously.” When the price aspect was considered, it was enlightening to compare New Zealand and overseas wafe rates, he said. The American pottery and ceramic industry had just con l ducted a survey to determine why employment had dropped to the stage that at January, 1949, eight employees per hundred were unemployed and production had been reduced by 10 per cent, to 15 per cent. The answer had been found in wage rates paid in America, compared with overseas rates, leading to greater imports into America. The average rates were found to be:—United States of America 133 cents an hour. New Zealand 65 cents, Great Britain 38 cents, Japan below 10 cents. “It is clear from the figures that the importer, with only self-interest at heart, gives no thought to and is endangering the continued employment and high standard of living of local workers. He is hopelessly pitted against an indigenous industry, which will prove a most useful unit in the Dominion’s economic life,” Mr Macdonald continued. “When buying a New Zealand-made article, the customer is protecting his own employment and the high standard of hying of the New Zealand worker, which the quoted figures amply demonstrate. The customer is also ensuring the maximum importation of those goods we do not manufacture, because we can only buy from overseas to the limit of our income.” . , . , The public would see the industry s faith in its own capabilities vindicated to an even greater extent in the coming years with greater quantities of high-quality ware to suit every taste rolling from local kilns. It would also be interesting, Mr Macdonald concluded, to watch the effect in New Zealand of the over-all approximate increase of 7J per cent, in the cost of English ware, as recently announced in Great Britain.