Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 23

Earthenware

Earthenware.

Although this industry has made great strides in New Zealand—and there are few large cities which do not possess earthenware and pottery works—and although the industry has apparently checked the importation from other countries and given employment to a large number of hands, it is still beset with difficulties. The success is, in fact, chiefly at present in the coarser kinds of earthenware; and it is much to be desired that the finer kinds of delf should, be manufactured in the colony. The earthenware makers all give the same reasons for the languishing state of the industry. They ask that the cost of transit of goods in the colony by rail should be reduced; that an extra duty should be placed on imported delf; that facilities should be offered by the Government to induce skilled labourers to come out to the colony; and that the Government should offer a bonus on the first five hundred pounds' worth of page 21 goods turned out—say, for example, willow-pattern plates and equally common cups and saucers. Delf of every description, and equal to any imported article, was made at the Milton Pottery Works, Otago; but, from various causes, among which were, undeniably, the expense of getting materials on the ground, and the cost of carriage of goods after they were made, the company failed. The works are now in private hands, but appear to languish. The bad state of the market at present, and the great over-importation of goods, has produced a glut which it will take a long time to work off, and which tells against the New Zealand industry. It is stated, however, that if the railway freights were reduced things would go ahead, by enabling works to be carried on close to good clay, by allowing the coal to be procured at a reduced price, and by enabling the manufactured goods to be sent to districts far remote from the works. At present the market is limited to the close vicinity of the manufactory through high freights. The limited supply of skilled labour is also a drawback. Potters have to be trained up from boyhood, as it requires great finish of hand and eye. There are few potters in the colony, and all of them came from the Home country; while it is said that it takes about three years for an apprentice to become of much use. The division of labour, although necessary for the production of good pottery, has thrown upon the New Zealand manufacturer a heavy burden. A man may be very good at his own branch of the trade and of no use in any other; so that a full and varied complement of skilled artisans has to be procured. It is, of course, a matter of great expense and difficulty to fill the places of those men in the event of their leaving their employment. Excluding delf, there are few kinds of earthenware which are not produced easily and successfully in the colony. It needed merely a glance round the Wellington Exhibition to discover that. The works of Messrs. Austin, Kirk, and Co., of Christchurch, may be taken as a passing instance. They are manufacturers of crocks, jars, basins, bowls, bottles, teapots, jugs, filters, pie-dishes, spittoons, and many other kinds of domestic, useful, and ornamental pottery and earthenware. But even this firm, with all their extensive business, have discovered that, by reason of the heavy freights, they are too heavily handicapped against imported goods outside of their own provincial district. With a reduction of page 22 railway and water charges, and with an extra duty on imported delf, there is little doubt that several makers of earthenware would begin to produce the finer kinds of pottery, such as plates, cups, and saucers.

Before leaving the subject of earthenware the suggestion may be made that many of the commoner varieties of clay tobacco pipes, notably the long "churchwarden," might be made in the colony. The pipeclay is found in many places, and the idea is worthy of consideration. A good many hands are employed in Kent and other parts of England in this industry, and the establishments are not always on a large scale. There ought to be no difficulty in making a beginning in New Zealand.