IMPOSING FIGURES!

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 614, 16 March 1929, Page 16

IMPOSING FIGURES!

SCORES OF THOUSANDS OF POUNDS WHAT “NEW ZEALAND MADE” MEANS IN WAGES PAID Every year over £17,000,000 is paid in wages to people employed in New Zealand’s manufacturing industries! And every year New Zealand factories produce goods to the gross value of over £83,000,000! These are only two of the many impressive facts one comes across in the latest official Year Book. Anyone at all interested in the progress of New Zealand industries would do well to study the “Factory Production” section of the Year Book, and the “doubting Thomases” will find much to cheer them. The latest figures available state somewhat baldly that 81,904 persons were engaged in establishments officially defined as “factories.” Less than a quarter of these are women, and as many of the remainder would be married with families dependant on them, the cold figures do not, and perhaps never can, tell of the amount of human lives and hopes bound up in these industries. Take, for example, just one small section of industry, the group known a.v biscuit and confectionery making. Over 2,500 New Zealanders find employment here, and for their services draw over £360,000 annually! The total value of their products is £1,626,269! These are really astonishing figures, yet the vast total is made up of small purchases for the private homes—of bis-

cuits eaten for and the boxes of chocolate eaten in theatres. Yet another example of how small units can make up a huge total —the brick, tile and pottery works in New Zealand produce nearly 68,000,000 bricks a year. The work gives employment to 1,316 men, who receive £303,500 in wages. Another example. Despite the enormous number of households who preserve fruits and make their own jams, the products of the jam-making and fruit-preserving business is valued annually at well over a quarter of a million pounds—in the last year of which figurese are available the total value of the output was £273,436. Then New Zealand sauce, pickle and vinegar making employs 258 persons, to whom salaries and wages paid total £49,000. The product is valued at £ 210,779.

Tho salaries and wages paid in the soap and candle works is £98,500; in clothing and waterproof factories, £873,000; in hosiery factories, £ 77,269; in iron and brass foundries, £207,000; in coachbuilding, £312,000; in harness and leatherware, £68,000; in tinware and sheet-metal works, £279,000; in furniture works, £538,000. Each of these concerns is really only a very small section of the great world of Dominion manufacture, yet the thousands of pounds they pay in salaries and wages is indicative of their contribution to the wealth of the country. Perhaps the best-known example of facte#/ production is the boot and shoe business. This employs 1,484 men and 892 women, who are paid £413,000 in salaries and wages annually. The value of the materials used exceeds half a million pounds (of which over half is for New Zealand leather) and something like 1,300,000 pairs of adults’ boots and shoes are manufactured each year. Imposing figures, yet, in the last analysis the whole of this vast business rests on the average New Zealander asking for “New Zealandmade” whenever lie happens to buy a new pair of boots!