INDUSTRY IN BRITAIN

Taranaki Daily News, 14 October 1929, Page 11

INDUSTRY IN BRITAIN

EVIDENCES OF PROGRESS. NEW FACTORIES BEING BUILT. . Christchurch, Oct. 9. An optimistic note was struck by Mr. Georoe Gould, chairman of directors of Tyne°‘ Gould, Guinness, Limited, who returned to Christchurch to-day after a visit to England. “There are, I suppose,” he said, “some people who imagine that England is a stagnant country, but to a superficial, observer, at least, the appearances are quite to the contrary. There is far more evidence of progress and expansion in England than there is, for instance, in New Zealand. “The amount of building, both of houses and factories, since I was in England three years ago is enormous,” said Mr. Gould. “It is very noticeable how many new factories have sprung up along the railway lines within 20 or. 30 miles of London. There is, of course, still depression in the textile industries. Nevertheless, there are vast numbers of very prosperous industries and businesses in England. Whatever might be the advantages to England of adopting a policy: of protection, it is a very pleasing experience to find oneself in a country where one. can get value for money in nearly everything, .except, perhaps, in such things as whiskey and cigars, which of course are heavily taxed. “This advantage of living in a freetrade country affects all classes, and more particularly the working class. I should think the working man in regular employment in England is better off than the worker in New Zealand. By protection and heavy taxation, and by interference with freedom of contract, the purchasing power of money in New Zealand in most things has been reduced to about 12s in the pound’ A shilling in one of the big departmental stores in London will buy as much as many things as a New Zealand half-crown. Even the produce which we export from New Zealand can be bought for very little more in London than in our own retail shops. “A menace to the return of general prosperity in England is, I think, the probable reopening of the coal trad© dispute, which the agitators seem determined to bring about. The members of the Labour Government made certain .promises during the election, to reopen the matter of the seven-hours’ day, and they are now being called upon to redeem their promises. The coal trade is just o-ettin" on to its feet again, but the owners say they ar© working on very narrow margins, and that if the sevenhours’ day is enforced it will knock the bottom out of the industry. In this, as in other trades, England is being pressed by the competition of other European countries, whose people work longer hours for smaller wages.”

Referring to his visit to the shipbuilding works of John Brown and Company, Limited, at Glasgow', Mr. Gould said: “Sir Thomas Bell, the managing director, when passing through one of tho enormous workships, remarked that it was sometimes supposed that Glasgow workmen consisted of Bolsheviks and Communists, but that was far from being tho case. They were really the advanced and enlightened Socialists. He told me that at present, while the company was taking contracts upon the barest margin of profit in order to keep the works going, the men were doing their share by‘working for £1 a week less than the supposed standard rate of wages. I think this may be taken as proof of the truth of his remarks.” .. . >•' I . u ... ’