H.--44.

16

Added Value. Increases. —Printing and publishing, £200,608 ; butter and cheese, &c., £169,348 ; clothing, £161,189 ; motor and cycle engineering, £153,773 ; electric supply, £128,442 ; biscuits and confectionery, £80,155 ; engineering (general), £73,266 ; chemical fertilizers, £69,635 ; agricultural machinery and implement making, £61,749. Decreases. —Meat-freezing, &c., £268,465 ; wool-scouring and fellmongering, £109,735 ; sawmilling, £58,874 ; flax-milling, £50,260 ; boot and shoe, £39,545. Land, Buildings, Machinery, and Plant. Increases. —Electric supply, £1,737,178 ; printing and publishing, £470,042 ; electric tramways, £101,065 ; aerated water and cordials, £45,163 ; meat-freezing, &c., £44,435 ; concrete block, &c., £39,921. Decreases.—Sawmilling, £351,895 ; flax-milling, £180,851 ; agricultural machinery, &c., £61,447 ; coachbuilding, £46,4-93 ; woollen-milling, £40,380. New Industries. A number of new industries have been definitely established, and other new developments in manufacture are planned. In the South Island the Southern Cross Glass Go. of New Zealand has recently commenced to make bottles for the New Zealand trade. Other lines are contemplated as the company progresses. Initial difficulties were encountered on. the formation and preliminary operations of this company, but the directors are now confident that the company will make steady progress in the manufacture of glass products. An extensive brickworks has been established in Fairfield, a suburb of Dunedin, by Messrs. C. and W. Shields, Ltd. Messrs. Brinsley a.nd Co., gas-range manufacturers, of Dunedin, report that increased business has followed the installation during the year of their vitrous-enamelling plant, and further extensions to their factory have in consequence been made. The Dominion Fertilizer Co., Ltd., are erecting works at Ravensbourne (a suburb of Dunedin) for the manufacture of superphosphates. The factory is rapidly approaching completion, and the capital invested in this venture is approximately £300,000. The directors consider that the site, which is on the waterfront and with a railway siding will assist materially in enabling a reduction to be made in the selling-price of superphosphates in the Otago and Southland Districts. In the Auckland District bowser-pumps are now being made by one company which has already supplied eight hundred to different parts of the Dominion. In the manufacture of these pumps it has been necessary to obtain parts from other engineering-works. The company considers that their product compares favourably in prices and utility with pumps imported from overseas. Several new confectionery factories are now operating in Auckland, among them being Stedman-Henderson Sweets, Ltd., and the Nestle and. Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Co., Ltd. Rationalization. The World Economic Conference defined rationalization as " the methods of technique and of organization designed to secure the minimum waste of either effort or material." It may thus be deemed to include not only the internal technical methods of organizing an establishment, but also those methods of organization and co-ordination which are on a much larger scale, and involve a general organization of economic activity. Rationalization, appeared, first i.u response to the special needs of Germany when her industries were in a particularly depressed condition, but the universal desire for markets in a world impoverished by the Great War has brought about increased interest in the principle in other countries. Briefly, an industry in which the entire productive machinery has been thoroughly overhauled, including factory-organization, sales, distribution, See., so that every bit works together as an effective machine to produce goods as cheaply as possible is said to be rationalized. As the name implies " rationalization " simply means " rational " or " reasonable " methods of production and distribution, as distinct from irrational methods, which result in unnecessary labour, waste, or expense. Rationalization by its very nature is a continuous process. It can never be complete, for new needs constantly arising always demand new methods. Problems are constantly occurring in the course of industrial reconstruction, a process which is worldwide and which is inevitable. There are, however, spurious forms of rationalization, and these have led some people to oppose the movement. The term has been associated, for instance, in the minds of some sections of the general public with all sorts of mergers, trusts, and financial arrangements that do not necessarily fall within its scope. True rationalization must be carried out here in New Zealand, as in the older countries of the world, if our local industries are to compete successfully with commodities produced in overseas markets ; and it would be calamitous if the process were retarded or prejudiced in the eyes of the public here or elsewhere owing to a confused conception of its aims and methods. Our problems of unemployment can only be solved by going forward, by the continuous adoption of new ideas, new methods, and by the planning of production on more efficient lines. This involves, however, not only scientific organization in regard to tools and equipment, but also the study and organization of business effort. Until comparatively recently rationalization has been perhaps too narrowly concerned with the former phase of the movement. Its process, however, is now being clarified, and it is realized by enlightened, business men that one of its objects should be not, perhaps, to drive the worker to greater effort, but to study how work may be done with less effort. Rationalization is an economic necessity, and if its principles can be adopted and applied to every side of the industrial problem, it will bring about more rapid progress in the future and increase the welfare and well-being of the community as a whole.