GROWTH OF INDUSTRY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21529, 16 December 1939, Page 28 (Supplement)

GROWTH OF INDUSTRY

CENTURY OF PROGRESS , Could the pioneers come back to-day and view the country they would doubtless be amazed at the changed scene. The wasteland which they commenced to turn to productivity has been developed into one of the most picturesque and progressive in the world. To-day primary and secondary industries walk side by side, whereas 30 years ago it was believed that the destiny of the country lay wholly in agricultural and pastoral pursuits. New Zealand to-day takes pride in her industry. Tlie quest of spars for the great sailing-vessels of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth venturies. and the hunting of the whale which was then still one of the principal world sources of oil, brought the first settlers to the wild New Zealand coasts. By the tolerance of the cannibal tribes, they made their homes on the shore, and set up the first factories, sawmills and whaling depots. How numerous were the latter is reflected by the remains of their simple machinery, the great iron try pots still rusting on many and many a New Zealand beach. On the heels of the whalers came the traders, and discovered a new commodityflax. The fibres of the native flax were found to be suitable for the manufacture of rojx? and coarse sackcloth, and so the flax-milling industry was inaugurated. Sawmilling, whaling, flax-trading, those were the three manufacturing industries that activated all the earliest settlements. To-day only a single whaling station still operates, killing the great sea creatures and trying out their carcases for the amber oil. Sawmilling, of course, has thriven with the increase in the Dominion’s population and the need of housing it. The flax industry' has seen many fluctuations, has swelled and declined, and has now taken a j new lease of life with the application , of the fibre to new and more universal purposes. Rapid Development The year 1882 saw the start of the frozen meat industry, and the woollen j milling industry was early established, i in the days when wool was still the ; principle output of New Zealand I farms. The Otago Provincial Government offered a bonus for the production of woollen goods; indeed ' such prizes did much to establish | early industries. Dairy factoring I was another offshoot of farming, a secondary industry directly’ dependent on a primary one. Its growth has been most marked of recent years. [ The comparatively recent transition I from sheep-grazing to dairying has j gone hand in hand with the growth of • the facilities and the betterment of ' methods of process in these farm products for local consumption and for export. It has grown with increasing acceleration. Printing, started more than a century’ ago by’ Colenso, lone mission printer, setting up his type laboriously by hand, has grown until almost every country township has its local ! paper. Eight thousand people are engaged in printing and publishing. Clothing and bootmaking started early in our history. They were individual industries then—a tailor here, a bootmaker there, each working on his own, in the old fashioned craftsman’s j tradition. To-day the various clothing trades occupy more New Zealand- , ers than any other, and produce a ' very large proportion of the clothing , worn in New Zealand. The same | thing applies to the boot and shoe : trade. The bulk of leather footwear, i and slippers, sold in the Dominion. 1 are to-day locally made. The imports | are mostly rubber-soled sports foot- ' wear, and patent or luxury lines. But ; no longer are old-fashioned methods used, or are the small individual i businesses the mainstay of industry. To-day great factories turning out i hundreds of pairs of boots and shoes . daily, by modern mechanical processes, | have brought the industry to its I present position. On the whole, the most striking | feature of the last few decades has I not been as much the growth as the : expansion of industry, the inclusion i of new products in the list of home- ! made goods. After a time any , industry relying on the local market | reaches a point where further de- 1 velopment Is more or less impossible. ■ a stage where the market is saturated. , It is useless then for newcomers to ' start up further factories in the same i line of business. So that enterprise i seeks a constant outlet in lines not j hitherto exploited, fields unexplored, j Many of the more modern industries, 1 such as the manufacture of radio sets, , have in a very short time attained a wholly unexpected importance.