INFLUENCES OF INDUSTRY

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1930, Page 11

INFLUENCES OF INDUSTRY

WORLD-WIDE DIFFICULTIES EFFECTS UPON NEW ZEALAND LORD BLEDISLOE ? S ADVICE By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The Governor-General, Lord Blcdlsloe, was the chief guest of the New Zealand Club at a luncheon to-day. He gave an address on world economics and the effects on New Zealand. His Excellency said he was far from expecting entire agreement with his views, which had been formed during his short sojourn in. the country/ The state of industry was governed by .world-wide factors over which they had little control and not purely, or even mainly, by domestic activities and requirements. New Zealand was especially affected by these considerations, for it was predominantly a pastoral country with a relatively' small, a very small, population for its geographical area, and its economic welfare depended, and must for at least another 30 years mainly depend, upon supplying its, primary products —wool, meat, butter, cheese, fruit and honey —to other nations. Upon their purchasing power, and upon the country’s capacity to produce at a reasonable ’ margin of profit commodities of this description and of comparable quality with those flowing , from other pastoral areas of the world depended in the near future not merely the country’s prosperity, but its very existence. The secondary industries must gradually develop as the population increased. Their value as additional producers of wealth and as, to some extent, consumers of primary produce was considerable, and if these industries were ancillary or closely allied to local primary industries their national utility and their stability would' be enhanced, but it must always be borne in mind that the world’s great centres of consumption for the industrial output were far from these shores and that their existence, unless they were offshoots of some great established manufacturing corporation, might prove to bo precarious in competition with mass production (accompanied- by relatively low overhead costs) in other countries; also whereas while trade was thriving such undertakings provided much employment at good remuneration, when inevitable waves of depression occurred they enormously accentuated unemployment, and consequently the task .of modern Governments and local bodies, and the depletion of their financial resources in seeking its alleviation, become immeasurably greater. If, moreover; the people of any country, especially one with sparse population, failed to patronise fully its secondary products their manufacture became increasingly precarious. So far as these commodities were not available patronage should be given preferentially by the country of the primary produccis to the manufactures of their best overseas customers in order that sound international finance and satisfactory exchange rates might be maintained, financial stringency with increased taxation avoided, and due facilities provided at reasonable freight rates by ocean ships carrying in both directions merchandise rather than ballast. “My own settled conviction as a careful student of this world-wide industrial problem,” added His Excellency, “is that those nations will ultimately gain the victory in the present battle for trade and ensure lasting prosperity and contentment for their peoples which are ready and able on the ono hand to supply their oversea customers, especially those in Great Britain, with commodities of uniformly high quality and complying with the exact specification which they prescribe, and which on the other abstain at least for the next decade from all avoidable domestic strife, emphasising (in a spirit of conciliation and truest patriotism) points of contact rather than points of difference. I earnestly hope New Zealand may be reckoned among their number.”