The Sun FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1914. LANGUISHING MANUFACTURES.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 49, 3 April 1914, Page 6

The Sun FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1914. LANGUISHING MANUFACTURES.

The public indifference to the fate of our manufacturing industries ii mainly a proof of the uselessness oi half the politicians who are paid £3O( a year to look after the fiscal condi tion of the Dominion. At the presem time the primary industries are expand ing at a rate that is out of all propor tion to the urban or manufacturing in dustries. This fact has been pointec out time and again by the newspapers and was further emphasised by Mr J B. Laurenson in his address to the In dustrial Association last night. It if an unsatisfactory state of things be cause it is desirably that some sort oJ balance should be maintained betweei the urban and. rural development of the community. Great Britain furnishes t bad example of a community that de votes its energies mainly to manu facturing and money-lending, with tlu result that agriculture has been allowec to stagnate. The first fruits of this policy are being harvested in the shape of physical degeneration (which always follows the congestion of population ii: large manufacturing towns), the emi gration of rural labourers, the depend ence on foreign "countries for food thai ought to be raised from British soil and the large erop. of industrial troubles that arise out of the concentra tion of millions of city-bred workers ir large cities. New Zealand shows s tendency to go to the other extreme The crusade against the large lane owner, the enthusiasm of both politica parties for "settlement and more settlement," and the profound belie! that the salvation of the country lies in the transfer of population from the towns to the country, has resulted ii tli« complete neglect of the equally im portant duty which devolves on Parlia ment to see that manufactures are en couraged. The boom in the primary in dustries has been assisted by the higl prices obtainable for produce. The hungry millions engaged in manufac turing in England must be fed some how, and in pursuance of the Cobden ite ideal of buying in the cheapesl market and selling in the dearest, w< are becoming more and more depend ent ou the foreign manufacturer foi imported goods which we get fron Britain in return for our produce -There lias not been time for any verj serious consequences to ensue fron what is, in a measure, a reversion t< the fiscal- conditions of 30 years ago but we are undoubtedly entering i period when the country will be in j position to dominate the towns ver; effectively. Many persons will saj that is a good thing, because the towni have been top dog long enough. Bu it is not a good thing. A legislating in which the rural interests are over whelmingly strong, soon becomes un progressive, and reactionary. This i; a condition that should be avoided, i possible, and it can only be avoided b; the representatives of the rural indus tries in Parliament admitting th< necessity for the encouragement o manufactures, and taking practic-a steps to bring about an expansion o the output of local factories. Loca manufactures are feeling more am more keenly the stress of foreign com petition. There is the eternal sliortag of labour, and although there has bee a consistent effort to get over that cliff] culty by utilising more up-to-dat machinery, that method is not ahvay open to the small employer. Then, th foreign manufacturer, by combinin and specialising, is able to effee reductions in the cost of productio that in many instances quite neutralis the protection afforded by impoi duties. Foreign manufacturers hav made extraordinary progress in the las seven years in this direction, but w are still working under the Millar tari of 1907. Needless to say, the protei

tion it affords is utterly inadequate. We would suggest to some of the gentlemen sweeping the political horizon with a telescope to discover something in the nature of a political policy, that if they would turn a blind eye on the land and sttidy the possibilities of fiscal reform, they might find something of real value as a votecatcher for the coming elections.