N.Z. Manufactures

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 584, 9 February 1929, Page 8

N.Z. Manufactures

SAFEGUARDING LOCAL INDUSTRIES Higher Tariffs Called For THE future prosperity and development of New Zealand rests entirely on its productivity. Only by increased production can our national wealth be added to and employment found for our workers. The amount of wealth we enjoy depends upon the quantity of raw materials and foodstuffs produced by our primary industrialists, and the manufactured goods made in our factories, mills and workshops by our skilled workers.

"JTP to the upheaval of 1914 primary production was easily our greatest source of wealth, and is still the dominant factor in our national prosperity. But the outbreak of war, with our isolation from overseas markets, gave our manufacturing industries a strong impetus. The arrival of imported goods was uncertain, conveying them was precarious, and prices soared incredibly. When peace came and industrial production again revived in Britain, there also came a rush of imports to fill old, and sometimes forgotten,

orders. The flood increased to such an extent that we were faced with an adverse balance of overseas trade when our imports greatly exceeded our exports in value. Prices slumped and depression became general. “Money was scarce” because it had gone out of the country to pay for an orgy of imported goods we could have made ourselves. In spite of this our factory production struggled along and did not slump to the same extent as primary production. An analysis of the last census returns (1926) shows that the “breadwinners” of the Dominion were occupied as follows: Primary producers 142,076 Manufacturing- 134,257 Transport, etc 58,724 Commerce and finance .. .. 83,788 Public Service and professional 58,255 Domestic and personal . . . . 44,500 Other groups, n.o.e 40,248 Total 561,548 It will be seen that the direct producers of the Dominion were almost equally divided among the primary and manufacturing industries. But in the five years which had elapsed since the 1921 census the number of manufacturing producers had

increased by 15,325. while the number of “breadwinners” engaged in primary production had decreased by 9,860. It is also significant to note that while 276,333 “breadwinners” were engaged in direct productive work, 255.515 were employed in nonproductive occupations. The total value of our manufactured goods produced in 1916 was £45,454,195; by 1926 it had swelled to £54,792,434. The wages paid had risen in the same decade from £6,653,804 to £16,876,881. In spite of the marked and healthy growth during this period the progress has not been maintained but has been checked by the steady stream of imported goods which pours over our wharves, keeping many hundreds of skilled craftsmen out of work. Their families have been forced to eat the bread of charity, and the idle workers themselves compelled to seek relief work at a bare subsistence wage. New Zealand imports manufactured goods from Britain alone to the extent of £l4 16s 5d a year for each head of population; Canada takes but £2 16s Id a head. Our wharves are lumbered with American timber brought in State-subsidised ships, while our sawmills are shutting down or working only part time. Australia makes over 97 per cent, of its own boots and shoes; we import over onehalf of our footwear, and our boot factories are partially idle. Australia makes 90 per cent, of its motor bodies and tyres, and like Canada is becoming more self-suffi-cient and self-contained every day, while we lean as heavily as ever on British and foreign manufacturers for essential and other goods and stagnation prevails in our manufacturing industries. The Australian farmer now finds his best market in his own Commonwealth, where half the wheat, two-thirds of the butter, 90 per cent, of the cheese, fruit and pork produced is consumed by Australian workers. The New Zealand farmer has still to rely largely on the vagaries of a speculative market at his antipodes for the sale of his staple products, and accept world parity prices in open competition with some of the lowest paid labour in the world.

Australian and Canadian parents find many wide and varied avenues of employment for their children, but the yearly “draft” from the primary and secondary schools of New Zealand is still being forced up “blind alleys” in non-productive occupations, with little prospect of the lads ever finding themselves other than unskilled workers. Canada and Australia are both highly protected against dumping. New Zealand has but a revenue tariff.

The provincial manufacturers’ associations and the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation are now embarking on a campaign to boost the use of New Zealand-made goods, and urge for further safeguarding of their industries. That will give increased local employment, reduce the price of goods, and keep our wealth within our own shores. Patriotism begins at home, and this wise principle is now to be brought home to those loyal New Zealanders who place their country first every time, and all the time. P.A.