THE RUBBER INDUSTRY

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1931, Page 5

THE RUBBER INDUSTRY

A CHRISTCHURCH SCHEME.

TARIFF PROTECTION SOUGHT.

A large factory for the manufacture of motor tyres and other rubber goods is likely to be established in Christchurch if tho Government agrees to a request that has been made to it to afford gome protection for the capital that will bo invested in the company. The Mayor (Mr. D. G. Sullivan, M.P.), who has brought the patter before the notice of the Government, stated that what the promoters of the new industry were asking for was that legislation should 'be passed affording protection for a limited number of years for the New Zealand capital that was to be invested in the enterprice. “New Zealand in proportion to the population,” he said, “is the largest importer of rubber goods in the world, and the big overseas corporations are not likely to let such a valuble market slip from them if they can avoid it. It is assumed that in the event of an industry for the manufacture of rubber goods being established in New Zealand it is almost inevitable that one of the big overseas corporations would also establish a large factory. They would then 'be in a position to undersell the products of the factory established with New Zealand capital, and it is probable that when they had destroyed the local industry they would withdraw from manufacturing in this country and would supply the market from overseas.” Mr. Sullivan said he was not a devoted adherent of the policy of extreme tariff protection. He realised all the dangers involved in that policy, but there were so many other ways of appealing to the patriotism of the people to purchase New Zealand-made goods that he felt that there were great possbiilities for the development of hitherto unused industrial resources. There was no reason why Christchurch should not be made the leading community in the Dominion in realising that; ambition, because of the cheap electricity available and the abundance of flat land suitable for l industrial enterprises,