IRON AND STEEL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19098, 20 August 1936, Page 14

IRON AND STEEL

DEVELOPING INDUSTRY MR. SEMPLE’S IDEAS “For years we have been selling our scrap iron to .Japan, to be sent back here in ' the form of shrapnel perhaps, in order to pay us back foi our enterprise and our vision,” said the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. 11. Semple, in Christchurch on Monday, when urging that the iron and steel industries of the Dominion should be developed. “Instead of us selling this scrap iron to the Japanese,’' he added, “we could use it in the Dominion in manufacturing our own steel for all.types of tools that we need so much in the development of our own country. ’ ’ The Minister’s remarks were prompted by a visit he had paid to tlm premises of Alloy Steel (Xew Zealand), Limited, at Sockburn, where he watched a run of molten steel into moulds designed for certain plant required by a West Coast dredging plant. Re marking that he had been greatly impressed with the company’s plant, Mr. Semple said that it was very important for New Zealand to become more self-supporting in the great basic industries of iron mid steel. “The trouble is,” he proceeded, “that we have knocked off training workers for skilful employment fo» the last four or live years and have diverted them into blind alley occupations. We have created a natiou of unskilled workers. The pick and the long-handled shovel have become New Zealand’s coat of arms. We have been travelling in.reverse gear, but now we must change gears, accelerate and gc in the right direction.” No country was more fortunately situated than New Zealand iu the matter of natural resources and conversely no country’s secondary industries were less developed than those of the Dominion.

Citing the Onekaka deposits as ai instance, Mr. Semple said: “We have mountains of iron ore in New Zealanc. awaiting development. In some coun tries these vast deposits would be finding thousands of workers constant employment. We are, however, think ing seriously about developing ou: iron and steel industry.”