Manufactories Need More Active Support

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 685, 10 June 1929, Page 9

Manufactories Need More Active Support

CHECK TO EXPANSION REVIEW OF STATISTICS

The need for more active support for the manufacturing industries of New Zealand is apparent from the latest figures supplied by the Government Statistician in the latest Abstract of Statistics. "There are definite indications that full productive capacity was not maintained, and that the potential capacity, as indicated by the number of new establishments and extensions in existing establishments, was not expanded to the same relative extent as it has been during recent preceding years,’ ’says the statistician in dealing with the principal statistics relating to industrial production in New Zealand during the year ended March 31. 1928. A record year in factory production was experienced in 1925-26, according to previous reports. The number of persons engaged was S 2.018; claries and wages, £16,932,169; value of products, £85,043,199; and the “added value’" (the excess of the gross value over cost of materials), £32.569,430. Following is a comparison of the prineinal statistics for 1926-27 and 1927-28:

L T4s and bUM : £22,875.447 £23.301,449 F ch n i t nery d . “I £39.847.678 £41.372.701 Total. .... £62,723,125 £64,674.150 j PERIOD OF DEPRESSION The recession in the number ol employees, the salaries and wages bill and the net value of production are relatively small, but their significance is their existence rather than their magnitude, remarks the statistician. They indicate a halt in the productive machinery. Both 1926-27 and 1927-28 were abnormal periods, as they marked the trough of the recent economic depression. ■j'he number of establishments, the horse-power of engines and motors and the value of land, buildings, plant and machinery, in which increases are recorded, may be regarded as indicating the potential capacity of the Dominion’s industries. PRIMARY PRODUCE PRICES The increase of over £5,000,000 in the cost of materials and consequently one of £4,717,000 in the gross value of products are remarkable, especially as the index-number of wholesale prices shows a fall of 4.88 per cent, from 1926 to 1927. The statistician explains the anomaly by the substantial rise in the prices for dairying and pastoral products as reflected in the figures for the butter and cheese and meat-freezing industries. This is shown to be the case by detailed statistics for groups of industries, as shown by the following summary, in which “primary” comprises meat freezing, bacon curing, dairy faci tories, fellmongery and wool-scouring, etc.; the second comprises gas and electricity generation and supply and electric tramways; leaving in a third group what mav he called the true

’Decrease. One of the most striking features of the return is the enormous capital investment in the gas and electricity industries, whose land and buildings, plant and machinery greatly exceed the aggregate of all the secondary industries. The comparison between the primary and the secondary industries is also interesting. The former dealt with materials valued at £33,000,000, and added £7,424,000 by manufacturing processes, the total value of their products being £40,317,000. The secondary industries increased the value of their raw materials about £18,000,000, to nearly £41,000,000, the increment in the processes of manufacture being £23,616,000.

1926-27. 1927-28. hiSlublisliin6Qts - . 5.08s 5,16t> Employees. . . - SI.904 SI. 740 Salaries and wages £17.047.723 J216.875.S7S Motive power, h.p. 408,739 417.105 (''ost of materials £50.213.482 £53.308.197 Value Of products £S3.012.503 *87.729.482 Added value . . £32,799,021 £32,4-1, 28d Capital assets:

secondary industries: — PRIMARY INDUSTRIES 1927-28. crease. Employees, No. . 11,692 912 £ £ Salaries & wages .. 2,726,430 . . 32,892,737 Cost of materials 4,131.679 Added value .. . . . . 7,424,054 236,071 Capital assets .. .. . . 9,125,123 25,847 GAS AND ELECTRICITY Employees, No. .. 1927-28. I n 7,210 *373 Salaries & wages £ £ .. 1,851,644 Cost of materials . . 4,221,136 Added value .. . . .. 2,380,714 •156,110 Capital assets .. 30,0S7,314 1,572,719 •Decrease. SECONDARY INDUSTRIES 1927-28. Employees, No. . . 62,838 •703 £ Salaries & "Wages .. 12,297,804 Cost of materials 18,194,324 Added value .. .. .. 22,616,487 *457,697 Capital assets . . . 352,459