The Daily News TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1934. SECONDARY INDUSTRIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 November 1934, Page 6

The Daily News

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1934. SECONDARY INDUSTRIES.

OFFICES: NEW PLYMOUTH. Currie Street. STRATFORD. Broadway. HAWERA, High Street.

Following the suggestions made by a committee appointed by the Manufacturers’ Association the reorganisation of the Dominion’s secondary industries was made the subject of his presidential address to the Associated Chambers of Commerce last week by Mr. A. M. Seaman. As president of that organisation Mr. Seaman has had full opportunity of watching the trend of commercial affairs in the Dominion, and his plea for encouragement of secondary industry was cogent and temperate. Whether the contention that more assistance has been given the primary than the secondary industries in the shape of State loans, subsidies and funds for research purposes is correct or not need not enter into the discussion. The public has had to find the money, and the same public has had to pay the enhanced prices for New Zealand manufactures brought about by a fairly high tariff on many commodities. Which form of assistance has proved the more burdensome will remain a matter for argument between two schools of political thought. It is the future rather than the past to which Mr. Seaman directed the attention of the commercial community. If there is a revival in oversea trade, if trading arrangements with Great Britain and the development of new oversea markets remove the fear that further land settlement in the Dominion and all it implies must be severely limited, the policy of the past generation may work quite satisfactorily. As prudent business men, Mr. Seaman suggested it would be well for the association to consider the other side of the picture and be prepared for a definite reduction in oversea trade with the serious effect it will have upon the resources of the Dominion and her ability to meet commitments and continue developments. Hesuggested that New Zealand may find it necessary to discover and develop resources less dependent upon markets in other countries. As a step towards meeting that need if it should arise, and in the meantime stimulating employment within the Dominion, Mr. Seaman urged the development of the secondary industries. Obviously tVe chief difficulty is that the domestic market is so small. In Australia, with five times the population of New Zealand, the difference between the cost of locally produced and manufactured goods and the price for which such commodities could be imported is very high, and the smaller the local market the higher the difference between imports and local manufactures is likely to be. New Zealand has the advantage of a plentiful supply of raw materials such as wool, timber, hides and minerals, in addition to cheap supplies of electric power, but if the disadvantage of the small market is to be overcome secondary industry must be made highly efficient. Mr. Seaman maintained this was not the case at present. Selling prices, he said, were too often “based on the cost of the imported competing article rather than on the local cost of efficient production.” Costing systems, he stated, were weak, and overcapitalisation was prevalent in certain industries. The latter point is of interest to Taranaki as being a possible explanation of the huge difference between the price received for his grain by the wheatgrower and the cost in Taranaki of flour and other wheat products. The inadequacy of research, the general lack of organisation leading to redundancy of plants and a wasteful system of manufacture were other matters to which the attention of the commercial community was invited, and, it will be noted, the remedies were suggested from within the secondary industries themselves. Possibly some assistance from the State in research work might be sought, and guidance by State experts has already proved of value in developing industry, but Mr. Seaman’s remarks assumed that the direction of commerce and manufacture would remain with private enterprise. Coordination of State departments engaged in research work might make for increased efficiency but while the latest proposals in regard to secondary industries propose a measure of control of manufactures, and even of trading methods, the control is to be by the industry concerned. As a means towards a greater degree of economic self-sufficiency the points raised by Mr. Seaman, like the suggestions made by the Manufacturers’ Association warrant consideration.