MR NASH VISITS MANCHESTER

Southland Times, Issue 23166, 6 April 1937, Page 3

MR NASH VISITS MANCHESTER

Metropolitan Vickers Works EMPLOYMENT OF NEW ZEALANDERS (From Our Correspondent) LONDON, March 15. While in Manchester the Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Nash) and his officers paid a visit to the vast electrical works of Metropolitan Vickers. These works employ 16,000 hands. It is here that a great deal of the electrical machinery in New Zealand has been manufactured, and at present the works are completing and shipping huge generators for Arapuni. The Minister was particularly interested in the way in which inventions were encouraged and adapted to reduce costs of production and in promoting human efficiency and health in certain phases of the more arduous departments of manufacture.

At these works also Mr Nash met half-a-dozen or more New Zealanders who are employed there for training: one of whom is now in charge of a section of the works. On the completion of their training these young men may be posted to any selected department or they may return to New Zealand.

It was interesting for the Minister to see the firm’s canteen. All sorts of mechanical inventions to prepare, and expedite, the service of meals were shown him. As many as 4500 meals are served in two canteens in from 20 to 30 minutes, which shows the efficiency of the service and the value of the inventions applied. “Portions” of vegetables and sweets, for instance, are dropped automatically from large hot containers into the plates at the rate of hundreds a minute. New Zealand Produce

Mr Nash also visited the cold stores of the Trafford Park Cold Storage Company, being met and shown over them by the chairman of the company (Colonel T. H. G. Stephens). There were in the stores at the time of the visit 7000 crates of New Zealand cheese, and 20,000 to 25,000 boxes of New Zealand butter. Mr Nash discussed with Colonel Stephens the relative times it took for produce and goods to be delivered to the stores by motor or rail from Liverpool from ships unloaded there and from the steamer’s sailing up the canal. These visits occupied the morning of one of the days in Manchester. Mr Nash returned to the city to be the guest at a luncheon given in his honour by the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, and at which he delivered his principal Manchester speech. Afterwards he visited the great general drapery and provision store of Lewis, Ltd., where he inspected a special display of New Zealand produce.

From there the Minister went with the Manchester city director of housing to be shown over three estates on which Manchester is erecting houses for working men. The Minister added the data of Manchester’s housing schemes to the material he has acquired on this subject in his visits to other centres. He completed a full day by fulfilling an appointment at the Cooperative Wholesale Society’s headquarters to discuss banking with the head of the society’s banking branch. Cotton Mills Inspected

On Saturday morning Mr Nash spent several hours looking over the famous cotton mills of Ashton Bros., Ltd., at Hyde, a suburb of Manchester. The firm, which has been in existence since 1780, is one of the largest groups of cotton mills in Manchester. The firm’s goods are exported in large quantities to New Zealand. The mills employ 3000 hands. Both American and Indian cottons are used in manufacture. It was interestin'' to be told that the cotton was transformed by process after process into a continuous thread so fine that 150 miles of it weighed only 16oz. All cotton, of course, is not spun to this fineness, the average length of thread per pound for fine yarns being anything from 30 to 60 miles. These figures give some idea of the machinery that is used in an up-to-date mill. Mr Nash was particularly interested in the steps that are taken for the health of the workers in their hours of recreation.