Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, APRIL 6, 1914. NEW ZEALAND INDUSTRIES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13349, 6 April 1914, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, APRIL 6, 1914. NEW ZEALAND INDUSTRIES.

New' Zealand is not making the headway that she should 'do as: an .industrial country. We have as yet seen no proposal from either the. Government or the Opposition parties as' to what should be done to encourage tho establishment of- manufacturing industries and to build up the industries already m existence — yet this is the most vital of New Zealand problems. Uo to any other progressive country m the world and one ftnds inducements being held out to manufacturers to lay down points and commence the production of manufactured goods; yet here m New Zealand with enormous quantities of raw material, with great potentialities m theway of cheap electrical motive power, little is being done to make this coun-. try' an exporter instead of an importer of manufactured goods. With the great developments that may be expected m the Pacific m the con roe of the next twenty years, with an abundant and ever-increasing demand for manufactured goods from the islands of the South Seas, and the western coasts of North and Soutn America, as well as from Java and the Orient, New Zealand . will be missing great opportunities if she is simply content to remain a pastoral country and does not, exercise a big

ift'oiL to build up industries. Even those industries that we have got are more or less languishing. Take ihe case of the failure of tlie Fiimley Canning Company. Could anything be more disappointing than that a fine establishment such a.s this, designed to make marketable the large supplies of fruit and i vegetables grown m tho fertile region of Hawke's Bay should find it impossible to carry on, whilst at the same time New Zealand is importing by every steamer that arrives from Canada and San Francisco tons and tons of preserved fruit? There •are other industries m New Zealand equally important which are m a none too flourishing position. At the annual meeting of the Canterbury Industrial Association on Friday evening, the president, Mr J. B. Laurenson, made some important references , to tho state of the induft-ries of the Dominion as revealed by figures covering the last ten years, and struck a note of warning regarding the increasing importation of foreign goods and neglect of locallymade articles. "'The reports of the Department of "Labor," he said, "show that comparatively few of the Dominion's, industries have been busy through the year. At February . 28th, 1914, out of twelve trades m. seventeen localities, 25 per cent, were busy, 40 per cent, would be classed as fair, 15 per cent, as active, and .the balance quiet. So far as these figures go, the- best that can be said is, .we have about held our own. Now, . I maintain that our industries are not gorging ahead as they should be doing. It is certainly not enough to say we have done all right. A glance at the year's imports shows that manufacturers have added considerably to. their jplant and machinery, and higher wages have been paid, but there, has not been a corresponding increase' m turnover. Tho figures point altogether m the opposite direction, and. ifc is high time that the whole subject was certainly investigated and the -results made known. Side by side with an increase m the output of our primary products, tlie^l, should be an equal increase m our manufactures. That this i.<i not so, anyone can see from , the trade returns. The most startling figures are as follows : — X Persons employed m Industry Imports Iri Proportion per Average to Population Head. Wage. 1901 i m 19.7 £14.G £81.04 190G 1 m 19.8 £15.739 — 1011 1 m 24.8 £18.625 £113.53 "These figures," Mr Laurenson went on to state, "show\that the e/nployment of persons m industry is considerably on the down grade. The increase m imports pei* head is startling, and the wage increase is also very noticeable. If these figures, as a whole, mean .anything, they mean that oiir industries are r.ot satisfactory, and are getting worse instead of better. If one could feel that we were exercising restraint m personal expenditure, the position might right, itself, but this^is jut.t what we are not doing. The population is buying , more than ever, as .the trade pei- capita will show,, but it fs the imported ['article we .-are buying m ever-increasing quantity. One .cannot blind one's eyes to the cause. It is highly protected labor on the one hand, and the want of a scienti-fically-constructed Customs tariff on the other. The other day the Arbitration Count gave art award m the metal assistants' dispute, which means an- addition of nearly £4700 per annum toChristchur.h firms alone. As tlie Court has laid it down as a basis that the difference between the wages paid to skilled and unskilled trades should be from 3d to 4d per. hour, the added burden, to. the Christchurch firms engaging this class of skilled labor would be. about £11,000 per 'annum, or a total of close on £15,000 per annum. Now, knowing the iron trade as I do, I Jiave no hesitation m stating that, the trade cannot stand the extra burden. Firstly, because the manufacturing iron trade is one of the most keenly competitive m the Dominion, and, secondly, because it is the least protected* trade of any. One section of this trade is protected through the Customs to the extent of seventeen pence per £ICO, or .007 per cent., while over a large range of articles the protection amounts to, 4.37 per cent. In Canada over the same, range the protection amounts to 15.81 per cent., and m the Commonwealth of Australia 15 per- -cent./ In. both these countries industrial enterprise and expansion are stepping out side by side with the extension of primary products," We are not too toire that the remedy lies, as Mr Laurenson Miggests, m -a policy of high protection. There are other industries than the iron-working industry which have protection of a substantial nature under the present tariff, and yet- the article manufactured abroad is able to compete successfully with the local product. The local .price of , labor isyof course, a dominating ' factor. The whole subject requires to be enquired into most carefully, from every standpoint, and th? Government would do well to sot up a Royal Commission to go exhaustively into the matter. New Zealand- must seriously sot herself tho task of carefully and consistently developing her secondary industries. As Mr Laurenson pointed out, it is a duty of the first importance to make the land yield its increase, but no Jess /is it a duty of the first importance to. turn our boys into skilled workmen and find them regular employment m their own country.