NEW INDUSTRIES

Southland Times, Issue 25302, 4 June 1935, Page 2

NEW INDUSTRIES

ENTERPRISE SHOWN N.Z. MANUFACTURERS The following statement has been issued by the general secretary of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation, Mr A. E. Mander:— How many of us, I wonder, have any idea of the extraordinary progress which has been made by New Zealand manufacturing industries during the last few years? How many realize, for instance, that to-day a quarter of the total population of the Dominion £ is maintained • directly and indirectly, by our manufacturing industries? How many are aware that there are rather more breadwinners directly employed in the factories than the number of all the dairy farmers and farm workers (including members of the farmers’ own families) in the whole of New Zealand? Finally, how many of us appreciate the significance of the following figures, which show the total value of the goods produced during the year:— £ Manufactured goods 30,093,000 Dairy produce 21,200,000 Meat and wool 20,400,000 That was the position in the past. But what' shall we say of the future? Well, it is clear that we have now reached the limit of expansion of our farm industries; so we are obliged to look now to our manufacturing industries alone for that development which will provide employment for our increasing population in the future. A rapid expansion of manufacturing during the next ten years will be the supreme necessity. New Lines of Production. The question is: Have our manufacturers enough enterprise to enable them to rise to this urgent national r.eed? Are they sufficiently progressive to justify the confidence of the people? Or have we reason to fear that they will “fall down” on their job? The answer, I think, is found in the actual achievements of manufacturing industry during the last few years, especially since the beginning of the slump. One of the few bright spots of these bad times has been the way in which manufacturers, on the whole, have met the crisis. Most of them have displayed surprising initiative and enterprise in starting new lines of production. Like the farmers, many of' the manufacturers also found that the. slump had ruined their-businesses, destroying the market for the goods they had been making. and selling in the past. What did they do then? Did they run to the Government for subsidies? Did they •merely sit down and squeal about their misfortunes? They did not. Most of these manufacturers promptly looked around to see what new kinds of goods they could start to’make, to take the place of their old lines. “Difficulties” it is said, “are the enterprising man’s opportunities.” So it has turned out. The slump itself has been the 1 opportunity for many of our manufacturers to show what stuff they made of; and they have cbme through the ordeal triumphantly. As a result of their enterprise, an astonishing number of new industries have been brought into existence and have achieved success during the last five years. Electrical Goods. For instance, until 1932 the number of electrical ranges made in New Zealand amounted to only a few dqzen a year. To-day they are being turned out at the rate of over 2000 a year. Until 1932 practically all the other kinds of electrical goods also were being imported. Then their manufacture was commenced in New Zealand; and already in less than three years, we find that a flourishing industry has grown up in this Dominion, employing hundreds of workers in the manufacture of electric irons, electric jugs, electric kettles, radiators, and the like —equal in quality to the world’s best. Before the slump all our lawnmowers were imported; to-day we make more than half of them—manufactured, not merely assembled, in Auckland and Christchurch. Here is another striking case. There is a huge dbmand for slippers and “kosy” shoes; but five years ago they were nearly all imported, and we made only 7700 pairs in New Zealand. Yet so quickly has this industry been developed that last year we made in New Zealand nearly 500,000 pairs. Not bad, for five years’ expansion! Then, consider such lines as electric batteries. A thriving industry has been built up—from nothing—in about five years. Another example: Before the slump we imported nearly all our steel furniture and filing cabinets for offices; but when the slump came, the enterprise of New Zealand manufacturers led them to start production of these lines on a thoroughly up-to-date basis in the Dominion, so that now there is at least one large factory turning out this steel office equipment equal to any in the. world. „ , Consider also the making of artificial silk fabric for ladies’ underwear —an industry established in Christchurch. It is another astonishing example of the way in which, in a very few years, a new industry can develop, and of the standard of quality which can be attained by a product of New Zealand brains and labour. Other New Industries. Yet another instance is found in the manufacture—not merely assembly, but actual manufacture—of wireless sets (except the valves), an industry which did not exist in this country a few years ago, but which to-day employs hundreds of workers in three large factories, producing sets to the value of over £250,000 a year. Again, we see two large factories in Wellington, with all the most modem machinery and their hundreds of workers, making ladies’ fully-fashioned silk stockings—another new industry of which New Zealanders may surely feel proud. Or, striking off again into a totally different type of industry, we see how, within the last year or two, an enterprising engineering firm has begun the manufacture of petrol bowsers; and to-day it is producing the new.electric bowser which is, in both design and workmanship, according to certain experts, probably the best in the world. These are but a . few samples of. the scores of cases which might be cited, proving that N»— Zealand manufac-

turers have no lack of initiative and enterprise. The same enterprise, the same resourcefulness, the same efficiency, which have been proved as characteristics of the New Zealand people in days gone by—in pioneering the colony, in the Great War, in sport, and in many other fields—these same qualities are showing themselves today in the field of manufacturing industry. New Zealanders have the right to be proud of what New Zealand is achieving in the industrial field. So we can surely face the future, with all the calls it will make upon industry to progress and expand—we can face that future with confidence in the belief that, judged on their record of achievement during the last few years, New Zealand industries will not be found wanting. y