LOCAL INDUSTRIES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20360, 18 July 1934, Page 13

LOCAL INDUSTRIES.

Retention of Protection Advocated.

CHRISTCHURCH M.P.’S PLEA. (“Star ” Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, July 17. Retention of the present measure of protection to electrical appliance manufacturing, engineering and bootmaking was advocated in the House to-day by three Christchurch members, Mrs M’Combs and Mr Armstrong, from the Opposition side of the House and Mr Holland, from the Government Benches. Mrs M’Combs (Lyttelton) said local manufacturers were being attacked and their employees with them, and she could not see any common sense in this action. It was time a halt was made and some sane method decided upon to bring about normal conditions. '1 he Government wanted another twelve months to do this, but she believed the country would not stand such a course. Most of the secondary industries had gone through the struggle of establishment, and this stage had been passed as far as electrical equipment manufacturers were concerned. She told the House how, as chairman of the City Council Electricity Committee, she had come in for a great deal of criticism because she had withstood demands that the M.E.D. should, sell locally manufactured goods exclusively. The object of the department’was to sell electric power, and it could not afford to sell goods that would give cause for complaint. The department, however, had given some assistance to this industry and had paid for scientific inquiry into locally-made electric stoves. Now these

stoves were equal to the imported -article and sold at the same price as the imported article, and the department was prepared enthusiastically to endorse their claims. Meant the End of Them.

Return to normal conditions would place this industry . beyond need of tariff assistance, continued Mrs M’Combs. Electric radiator manufacturers were in much the same position, and to attack these industries in the way the Government was now doing meant practically the end of them. Distributing on her desk samples of Christchurch-made nails, Mrs M’Combs made a plea for retention of work for the men who were making them. She also urged reconsideration of the Government's attitude towards motorbody builders, saying that between 200 and 300 men were affected. One effect of the new tariff wa6 that one American car which was imported in a knocked-down form could now be sold at a cheaper price than a British baby car. The fact that the Unemployment Board was going to grant £250,000 for the foundation of new industries was recalled by Mrs M’Combs, who said that this seemed a strange procedure, when the Government was sweeping away already established. Source of Employment. Mr Armstrong (Christchurch East) said New Zealand had made record strides in primary production, which was now the greatest in the world in relation to population, but he did not Think the people w;ere any better off for this increase. Manufacturing industries in New Zealand to-day employed more men than did the dairying industry, and the value of production was greater than butter production. One result of the high Australian tariff had been to impose a virtual embargo on the importation of boots into that country, and within two years of the imposition of the new tariff in Australia boots and shoes had been reduced 20 per cent. What could be done in Australia could be done in New Zealand.

Another industry quoted by Mr Armstrong was engineering, which, he said, employed 150,000 workers in 1930. One result of the removal of protection on the electric range industry, which was part of the engineering trade, would be/the dumping into New Zealand of surplus Canadian ranges. The public would not get them one 1 penny cheaper. Wheat Duties. Speaking of the wheat duties. Mr Armstrong said that no one in New Zealand would get bread one penny cheaper if they were abolished. Mr Armstrong said that in the 41b loaf of bread, costing lid, the value of the wheat was only 2dd. His quarrel was not with the man who got the 2£d, but with the people who w T ere responsible for raising the price of bread from 2-ad to lid. There were some big monopolists among Auckland merchants who imported cheap wheat and kept the price of bread up, and these were the men he was blaming. Mr Holland (Christchurch North) that whatever source of dissatisfaction there had been in the past with New Zealand n.anufacture'rs now had disappeared, and quality and design were all that were desired. The nail industry, for example, was very efficient, and the amount of duty saved by the reduction was not worth while tc overseas manufacturers. A Promise of Protection. In the case of one electric stove manufacturer in Christchurch, said Mr Holland, he was induced to go into the business by the promise of protection given by the Government of the day. A duty of 20 per cent was imposed, Lut this now was to be removed. It was to be regretted that there was any reduction in the duties on boots and shoes, in the manufacture oi which 75 per cent of the raw materials were produced in New Zealand. A reduction of 5 per cent might seem small, but in the case of one firm the •profit was only J per cent. Thus with the reduction of the duty the firm would not be able to carry on. The secondary industries wej-e the most promising avenues for absorbing the! unemployed, and it seemed inconsistent to give £250,0C0 for the encouragement of secondary industries and then with the next stroke of the pen to wipe out the small measure of protection enjoyed by those industries