FACTORY WORK IN DOMINION

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1934, Page 7

FACTORY WORK IN DOMINION

FURTHER DIMINUTION REPORTED. ARREST OF DECLINE APPARENT. (By Wire. —Parliamentary Reporter). Wellington, Last Night. Factory industries in tire Dominion were at their peak in 1930 and the Labour Department’s survey for the past year shows that since that date the numbers of workers have declined by 19,409 and factories had diminished by 1421. The drop was very marked in 1932, but last year the number of workers declined by only 254, while the decrease of 578 in the number of factories is explained as being due to the closing down of a number of small businesses.

A decided improvement is noted in the clothing, white-working, boot manufacturing and sawmilling industries and other trades connected with the building industry. It is considered that the Unemployment Board’s scheme for the provision of boots for relief workers and its building subsidy scheme contributed to these improvements.

The following new industries have been established in the Dominion, showing, states the report, the improved tone of manufacturing in the country: Rubberware manufactumg, flax wool-pack and textile manufacturing, vacuum packing of primary produce, eel canning, manufacture of wooden matches and dry cell batteries, the refining of crude oil into various grades of lubricating oil and the preparation of ethyl petrol. “The raising of the rate of exchange, which was originally done for the purpose of benefiting the Dominion’s primary producers, has also,” continues the report, “been of considerable advantage to New Zealand manufacturers in that it has increased the landed cost of imported goods, thereby enabling locally manufactured goods to secure a larger share of the market.

“The result has been particularly noticeable in the case of the clothing, white-working and similar industries, where it was found necessary to work a considerable amount of overtime, and it is expected from the registrations that have so far been effected for the present year, that the beneficial results observed during last year will be more than maintained during the coming year as far as factory employment is concerned.”