RESEARCH NEEDED.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 18027, 23 May 1930, Page 9

RESEARCH NEEDED.

EMPIRE’S INDUSTRIES. ECONOMIC POLICY. DEVELOPMENT URGED. Visiting the Dominion, mainly in connection with the future New Zealand policy of the Rowntree Company, Mr George Herbert, a director of several English companies, and the author of hooks on economic and Imperial subjects, is in Wellington. While in the Dominion he will devote attention to Imperial economic questions. “Much Imperial economic research and activity are being undertaken in the United Kingdom,” Mr Herbert says, “in this connection Lord Beaverbrook is running an Empire crusade, and an Imperial Economic Union was formed in London last year, with Lord Melchett as president,'Lord Lloyd as chairman, and Mr Herbert Williams (late Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade in the United Kingdom)) as scretary.”

Mr Herbert, who is on the advisory council of this union,, has made certain arrangements in Australia with interested senators to form an Imperial Economic Union in the Commonwealth, and he hopes to make similar arrangements in the Dominion. In fact, each part of the Empire will have an Imperial Economic Union. These unions will not be branches of the Imperial Economic Union in the United Kingdom, but will be equal partners cooperating and co-ordinating Imperial economic research with a? view to the. formation of an Imperial economic policy which can guide Empire Governments, industries, and individuals along the right roads of progressive development, industry by industry, and country by country, with due regard to Empire co-operation. No Stability. “It is appalling, but nevertheless true,” said Mr Herbert, “that no industry, primary or secondary, throughout the Empire has any sense of security or continuity in any export market ol the world, and there is no Empire policy to guide or co-ordina.te Imperial activities. Until these omissions are rectified the" Empire will never realise its responsibilities or possibilities, and yet we have the richest and largest group of world markets within the British Empire. In such circumstances there is no wonder that we experience our economic depressions and difficulties. “There is tremendous scope within the Empire for not only increasing our prosperity and raising our standards of life, but also for providing better opportunities for our present and rising generations. In fact, it is impossible to reconcile Unemployment, distress and poverty with our Empire resources and requirements. “It is unfortunately impossible to justify .Empire free trade with the existing economic conditions brought about in the various parts of the Empire by the pursuance of policies of economic isolation, but it is possible and imperative that we should analyse, industry by industry, the possibilities for Empire freer trade, with its consequent development. Unless it does this, and tackles it soon, the British Empire will have to take second place in production and marketing to the United States of America. Analysing the Position- “ The present economic conicltion of the British Empire calls for an immediate survey. Governments come and go, and there is no continuity of economic policy, so that in some parts of the Empire we find secondary industries sheltered to such an extent by tariffs that competitive production with other parts of the Empire is impossible, and their goods can only be sold in the limited home market, with the inevitable result that such secondary industris soon become overcrowded, with disastrous results to both capital and labour. “There is a world market for our primary industries, and it is high time that both secondary and primary industries were analysed carefully with a view to a guiding policy being formulated. The bolstering up of secondary industries on an unsound productive basis is particularly applicable to Australia. “There is no guide to Empire industries as to where to develop and what to produce with regard to Empire resources and requirements. Politicians often try to justify increased tariffs by encouraging local manufacture, but such efforts would, in several industries, make- economic conditions worse by: '(a) Cessation of excise revenue on imports; (b) improbability of inland revenue owing to surplus production and intensive , competition; and (c) creating further unemployment in industries which would become overcrowded. No Guide to Emigration. “In the case of the individual there is no policy to guide emigration to the right country or industry, and then we wonder why only about 40 per cent, of our Empire requirements come from within the Empire, and emigrants are not forthcoming to pioneer the Empire; and also why emigrants that do come forward are often regarded as a drain on the labour market. “The Imperial Economic Union in the United Kingdom is tackling this problem energetically, and it is almost certain that tiie next gecnral election at Home •’will he fought _ mainly on an Imperial enonomic policy. This makes it all the more essential that we should have some kind of organisation in each part of the Empire to break the ground and make the road for Empire progress and development on sound lines. In this connection, after the preliminary work has been accomplished, it is possible that an Empire Development Board may be set up, with branches throughout the Empire, to consolidate •and guide development. He has travelled the world extensively, and he stated that his company lias concentrated its development on Imperial lines to such an extent that f over 90 per cent, of its purchases of raw materials come from within the Empire, and’ it lias overseas factones in Canada, South Africa, and the Irish Free State. In regard to the ROvntree policy in New Zealand Mr Herbert hopes to make arrangements for certain of their products which have to meet specific low units of currency to be manufactured in Hew Zealand.