CANADIAN INDUSTRIES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 110, 11 May 1936, Page 6

CANADIAN INDUSTRIES

■A -ytlL Ottav. a Agreements will soon be coming up lor recon1 sideration, and two industries in particular in the Dominion of Canada will be making themselves felt in the Canadian Parliament : One is the textile industry and the other is the iron and steel industry. Neither will concede anything to the foreign competitor which, in this case, is the British manufacturer. It is not generally realised that the Dominion of Canada is a manufacturing- country. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to declare that Eastern Canada is a manufacturing district. This is particularly illustrated by the iron and steel industry. This industry is - in fact one of the oldest in Canada. Under the French regime forges were operating at Three Bivers, in Quebec, as early as the middle of the seventeenth century. I tut the real development of the iron and steel industry began only after Sir John Macdonald launched his "National Policy” of protectionism in 1878. The shelter thus given from competition, which was chiefly British, was responsible for the establishment of a number of iron ano steel plants. The industry made steady, but not spectacular progress, up to the outbreak of the Great War. when it received an impetus from the demands of the Allies for shells and other munitions. This enlarged the industry, and by 1918 it had grown to such an extent that 547.9 millions of dollars were invested in the industry. Canada will find it very difficult to place this industry in jeopardy to placate. British feeling’. If it does not mov«, howero”. the r'-m'-mw are likclv to be serious.