BENEFITS GAINED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17953, 3 December 1932, Page 2

BENEFITS GAINED

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT USE AND CONSUMPTION Some aspects of the industrial developments of the Dominion and the benefits accruing from that development were dealt with' by Mr. J. Pierce Luke at the annual meeting of the Wellington Manufacturers’ Association. The idea had grown, said Mr. Luke, that tho advantages gained by those employed in industry were t due to the pressure brought by organisations of employees upon employers. That was not so, proceeded Mr. Luke, The majority of employers in Britain and New Zealand had always been, and still were, mindful of the well-being oi the people who were working -for them. Tho position had been reached when the manufacturers were being regarded as a section of the community who had been described as “out to grind tho faces of the poor.’ Nothing was further from the truth. Employers recognised that in all industrial undertakings the most essential factor was the human factor. But they had to take into account the psychology which had grown up in the last 50 years, and to realise that a change in conditions had taken place. There was no sueh thing as primary and secondary industry, said Mr. Luke, it was just industry. The former produced raw materials, and tho industries converted them into consumable commodities. New Zealand had concentrated on consumable commodities. The Dominion’s natural resources must be exploited with the purpose of producing utilisable commodities as distinct from consumable commodities. CUTTING BOTH WAYS.

Air. Luke mentioned the reference by the Minister of Finance, the Hon. W. Downie Stewart, to' the non-flexibility of agreements such as were made at Ottawa, and pointed out that Now Zealand was going to lie faced with a restricted demand ou the/British market for its 'consumable commodities. Markets might be developed elsewhere, but in doing that the Dominion would bo up against a serious problem. Taking tho Far East, it was probable that business could be done with Japan, which would mean that manufactured articles would be brought back from Japan. If New Zealand extended trade with the East it would put the country in the difficult position of having to meet the low production costs of tho East. “We can face up to our difficulties in this country,” continued Mr. Luke. “We are facing 'them to-day > hut wo have to find places in this country of ours—quite apart from the unemployed—for at least TOCO boys per annum, who have to be absorbed in some form of our industrial, commercial, or professional life. The great majority ol them must be absorbed in that section of industry which is urban and not rural. That being the case, we must consider carefully just how we are going to make the op r port unities for the rising generation. We have no right to make tlie conditions so non-flrxihle that we cannot make tlie opportunity for the rising generation.”