NEW AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIES

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 22992, 8 September 1944, Page 5

NEW AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIES

Enormous Wartime Development Prospects in Peace By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright (7.30 p.m.) SYDNEY. Sept. 7. New Zealand's deep interest in the Australian plans for industrialisation after the war is emphasised by the visit here of the secretary of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand (Mr A. O. Beany) who is investigating trends in the Commonwealth s industrial development with a view to the expansions of post-war trade between Australia and New Zealand. While trader stress of wartime urgent*' and with the assistance of wartime economy, Australia has made enormous strides industrially. It is not clear how this development will be carried into the peace. of the new industries may need the further peacetime assistance of subsidies or the protection of tariffs, before they are established to function on a competitive export basis. At present it is certain only that Australia will not permit promising new industries to lapse and that both the Government authorities and private manufacturers are imbued with a desirability of developing Australia’s Industrial exports. When, and to what extent, New Zealand could expect to receive these Australian exports in open competition with similar goods from America and Britain cannot yet be made clear. The Australians’ heavy industry has long been functioning on an export basis and new wartime manufactures, which also appear able to withstand free overseas competition include: Agricultural machinery: £1.000,000 worth is now exported annually. Power alcohol: The Colonial Sugar Refining Company's plant in New South Wales, producing 3,000.000 gallons of power alcohol a year "from 3,000,000 bushels of wheat, is believed to be the most up-to-date in the world. Glass: Lenses made in Tasmania are of a type not obtainable anywhere else in the world. Plastics: The developments include successful experiments of utilising timber and casein. Big developments are also bbifig made in the Australian textile industry. They include the manufacture of rayons—and experiments are being conducted to obtain the necessary cellulose from Australian woods. About 60 new textile and clothing factories have been established recently in various parts of New South Wales alone. The main centre is at Rutherford, near Newcastle, where an Ameri-can-Australian combine will build the largest rayon manufacturing plant in the Southern Hemisphere. From this factory it is hoped to build up: an export trade. Less widely-publicised, but scarcely less impressive, expansion has taken place in the Australian chemical industry. Varieties of organic chemicals now manufactured here include analine, acetic acid, sulphanxlamide and phosphorus. Medical drugs include tetanus and gangrene anti-toxins, ether and suiphaguandadine. Motor Vehicles Manufactured Much attention is being focussed on proposals to build an Australian caiafter the war and a Government announcement is expected this month. Suggestions that such a car will be of light Continental design arc being strongly criticised as being unsuitable for rugged Australian use. An interesting suggestion made by a former Prime Minister (Dr. Earle Page) is that the plans for the Commonwealth's post-war automotive industry should concentrate on the building of light trucks and lorries suitable for testing Australian conditions. He has pointed to the

possibility of developing an export trade in which Australian-made special types as all-wheel-drive lorries, needed for the timber industry. • - Before the war Australian-made Moth planes were being exported to South Africa and the Dutch East Indies, and big developments in the Commonwealth's post-war aircraft industry are The production of civil airliners is part of a Government plan and other allied projects are believed to include: The establishment of a factory to produce Rolls-Royce Merlin or other types of aircraft motors; the production of sporting or family planes to popularise flying; -the continued use of hundreds of small firms, now making aircraft components, to manufacture spare parts for R.A.A.F. and civil aircraft. It is, however, unlikely that such branches of the aircraft industry will function without some form of Government assistance, at least in their initial stages. Similarly, Australia’s shipbuilding industry, which has been of inestimable wartime value, will also need some assistance to ensure its prosperity in the competitive post-war years. Such post-war Commonwealth industries as motor car and aircraft manufacture and shipbuilding are if vital security and importance to New Zealand as well as to Australia —but whether they can become early new channels of unrestricted trade between the two countries seems doubtful.-