The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 23
No. III.—Manufactures
No. III.—Manufactures.
The next department of industrial enterprise in order of development is the manufacturing, and it now remains for us to submit it to the same test as in previous articles the commercial, pastoral and agricultural interests have undergone. Most persons, at any rate on this side of the Murray, whether writers or speakers, admit that in this branch of industry Victoria has secured a very great advantage, and content themselves, while acknowledging a fact which they cannot deny, with sneering at our factories as "hothouse growths," "forced establishments," "State supported institutions," or anything else, according to their capacity for deceiving themselves with phrases. The exigencies of the late keen election contest in New South Wales would appear to have emboldened the scribblers for the Free-trade Association of that country to take a loftier flight; and, scorning facts, they have taken to fiction, and have even ventured upon prophecy. In one of the leaflets issued by this precious association, and to which reference has already been made, the ignorance of the people of that country is so far imposed upon, and we may add relied upon, that they are told "Free-trade New South Wales is overtaking protected Victoria in manufacturing industry every year." The readers of this romanti: page 11 fabrication are further assured that if they go on as they have gone during the past ten years, in another decade Victoria will be nowhere as a manufacturing country compared with New South Wales. It will be an easy task to show that there is not a shadow of foundation for these assertions, and that nothing but the complete ignorance of the people of New South Wales of the facts of the case made it possible for anybody to issue a document so entirely Munchausenish as that from which the above quotation is taken. Before proceeding to this task, however, it may be as well to draw attention to the fact that even these pleasant fellows admit that at the present time Victoria takes the lead as a manufacturing community—though doomed to lose it within the next ten years. Leaving the prediction for the present, and dealing with the admission, one or two points of interest present themselves for notice. First, one cannot help asking the question, "How and when came Victoria to secure this lead in manufactures Twenty-five years since, just when the disappointed and unlucky diggers were beginning to swarm about our towns, looking anxiously for some other means of earning a living, New South Wales was in the condition to take advantage of existing circumstances and current events. It had been 75 years growing to its position, and must have had many workshops in existence, which a very little energy and capital could have developed into factories, had the occasion been seized. Boot factories and tweed factories were already in existence, as our free-trade instructors are never tired of reminding us, and claiming the circumseauce as a proof of the sufficiency and superiority of their policy for the encouragement of native industry. There were, too, here and there, on the shores of the beautiful Sydney Harbor, or Port Jackson, boat building and ship repairing yards, which had been brought into existence by the very necessities of the community; and which, with a little judicious protection, would have developed into enormous factories, commanding the whole business of the southern hemisphere, leaping into vast proportions as that business did consequent upon the rush of people to these shores in search of gold. New South Wales neglected the apportunity, which then was presented to it, of becoming the manufacturing, and consequently the commercial, centre of Australasia. Certain sections of the Victorian public saw the opening which was thus being passed by, and, supported by this journal, succeeded, after a long and embittered struggle, in seizing the chance, and passing through Parliament a protective tariff. The result is seen to-day in the manufacturing supremacy which even the hacks of the Free-trade Association of New South Wales are forced to acknowledge. Will the members of that association inform the people of New South Wales how it comes about that their policy, which they assert is the only one by which it is possible to secure prosperity, has absolutely and miserably failed to keep for that colony the lead which it once had in manufactures, while our policy of protection has enabled us, starting from nothing:, to leave it hopelessly in the rear, that is, hopelessly so long as it continues to follow its present course? New South Wales had every point of advantage which it is possible to enumerate, with the command of coal into the bargain. What has it all ended in? In the supremacy of this country, which without one of the advantages enjoyed by its rival, but simply by the adoption of a protective tariff, has taken the position and secured the progress which has made it the object of envy to its neighbors.
Coming now to the assertion which we have quoted above, namely, that New South Wales is overtaking Victoria in manufactures every year, it will only be necessary to compare the figures relating to these industries for the past decade to show how utterly without foundation is this statement. In this connection we are sorry to have again to complain of the very meagre information which the records of New South Wales afford respecting its manufactories, and the consequent difficulty there is in getting ad exact common basis of comparison. This will be manifest to our readers as we proceed; but taking such material as is at our disposal, the result will leave no doubt as to the relative position of the two countries.
page 12Reaping and threshing machines | 2,600 |
Hay cutting machines | 27 |
Hay making machines | 12 |
Hay pressing machines | 569 |
Horse raking machines | 1,663 |
Chaff cutters | 4,163 |
Wine presses | 270 |
Mowing machines | 1,851 |
Corn crushers | 1,003 |
Corn shellers | 4,018 |
Turnip cutters | 21 |
Winnowing machines | 1,469 |
Total | 17,666 |
The absurdity of including such a list of agricultural implements in a schedule purporting to be a return of manufactories is so evident, that to state the facts as they appear in this grossly fraudulent official document is sufficient. It may, perhaps, be reported that in the Victorian schedule 201 chaff cutting and corn crushing works are included. This is very true, but the compiler of our statistics is careful to point out in a footnote the distinction between such works, which employ 870 bands, and are worked by machinery of 1211 horse power and simple farm implements. Mr. Hayter says:—"They must not be confounded with chaff-cutting and corn-crushing machines in use on farms, which numbered 18,421 in 1885, and which figure in the New South Wales returns."
Our friends over the border would appear latterly to have themselves realised the ridiculous nature of the proceeding, but have lacked the courage to discard the schedule altogether, for during the last few years they have published a supplementary schedule, from which these items are excluded, but in which absurdities almost as great, but not so manifest, or so easily exposed, are included. This second list declares the number of factories in New South Wales to be 3463, and the number of hands employed to be 40,698, and there the information ends. It is clear to anyone who makes the study of these statistics his business or his pleasure, that the authorities in New South Wales are determined that nothing shall be done, so far as they are concerned, to furnish real reliable data upon which to base a comparison of our respective progress in this department of enterprise. When we turn to our own schedules a very different state of things is discovered. It is true the number of manufactories is only 2828, being 635 less than New South Wales claims; but then we have a large amount of information respecting our factories, which New South Wales studiously withholds, which information proves that what we call factories are such in reality, not, as in the case with our neighbor, mere shops employing two or three hands. To commence with, our statistician heads his schedule with the following announcement:—"The works and manufactories, &c., respecting which information is given in this table, are all of an extensive character, except in cases where industries of an uncommon or interesting nature might appear to call for notice. Every bootmaker's, tailor's, dresmaker's, carpenter's, cooper's, blacksmith's, baker's or confectioner's shop may, in a certain sense, be called a manufactory, but no attempt has been made to enumerate such places." Then we are told that the number of hands employed in page 13 these 2828 factories was 49,297, which of itself shows that our factories, on this basis of comparison alone, are very different establishments to those reckoned by New South Wales, seeing that while ours are 635 less in number they-employ nearly 9000 more hands. Our information does not stop here, however, but lets us know that our 50,000 hands are assisted by machinery of 20,160 horse power. What has New South Wales to say to that fact, or to put in comparison with it? Nothing whatever. Then our figures proceed to tell us that the plant and machinery in our factories was in 1885 valued at £4,643,893. and that the land and buildings in which these industries are carried on were at the same time valued at £6,263,992, making the fixed capital invested in these 2828 factories the enormous sum of £10,907,885. Has New South Wales any such facts to record concerning the workshops which it dignifies by the name of factories? Not a word or a figure. Those who prepare the statistics for that colony know too well that if they ventured to publish any such information as this all the self glorification which is derived from the fact that they count 3463 factories against our 2828 would be gone, and all the chances of free-trade misrepresentation based upon that solitary and perverted fact alone would be completely destroyed.
Year. | Number of Factories. | Number of Hands. | Horse power of Machinery. | Value of Plant and Machinery. | Value of Land and Buildings. | Estimated Value of output, based upon Census Year Returns. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
£ | £ | £ | ||||
1865 | 803 | 10,050 | 5,894 | 1,341,026 | 928,670 | 1,434,000 |
1885 | 2,828 | 49,297 | 20,160 | 4,643,893 | 6,253,992 | 24,070,000 |
Inc. | 2,025 | 139,247 | 14,266 | 3,302,867 | 5,335,322 | 22,636,000 |
This statement represents a condition of progress truly wonderful, and when New South Wales can produce such a record its Free-trade Association will be justified in telling the people that its policy is proving equal to if not superior to our own. Until similar results can be shown, assertions such as those made during the recent electoral contest are nothing less than deliberate falsehoods published for the purpose of bamboozling the electors to continue to support a policy by which the free-trade commission agent, yclept a merchant, makes a fortune, and foreign workmen obtain employment at the expense of those very electors and their families, who in their ignorance are thus imposed upon. The remarkable and gratifying increase which the above statement shows, not only in the number, but more particularly in the size and importance of our manufactories, is almost entirely due to our protective policy. This is easily seen by a glance at the character of the factories making up the 803 in existence before the adoption of that policy. They were just of the character which from the necessities of any civilised community must be established. They were chiefly connected with the supply of food and drink and the various branches of the building trade, and included in the total of 803 there were 80 breweries, 118 grain and flour mills, 63 cordial manufactories, 180 brick yards &c., 86 saw mills, 56 metal works, 14 boat building yards, 107 tanneries and other primitive works connected with the pastoral industry, and last, but not least, 63 corn-crushing and chaff-cutting machines, which in those early days used to be included by our statist in the schedule of manufactories, a practice long since discarded, but as we have pointed out still adhered to by our friend on the other side. These numbers added together give a total of 767, leaving exactly 36 to represent the small struggling attempts at finding employment for our population at the trades to which they had been used and educated. The difference between those 36 infant industries and those now included in the above statement turning out goods to the value of £24,000,000 represents what protection has done for the colony, and what our people owe to those who, through bitter opposition, malignant abuse and persistent misrepresentation, initiated and still support the system.
page 14Articles Produced in and Exported by N. S. W | Value for 1875 | Value for 1880 | Value for 1885 |
---|---|---|---|
£ | £ | £ | |
Agricultural implements | 77 | 78 | 751 |
Machinery | 5,726 | 791 | 8,009 |
Apparel and slops | 69 | 117 | 4,247 |
Boots and shoes | 48,252 | 48,097 | 45,710 |
Saddlery and harness | 12,155 | 14,065 | 6,580 |
Marriages, carts, &c. | 13,650 | 7,225 | 4,293 |
Totals | 79,929 | 70,374 | 68,550 |
Articles Produced in and Exported By Victoria. | Value in 1875. | Value in 1880. | Value in 1885. |
---|---|---|---|
£ | £ | £ | |
Agricultural implements | 17,703 | 17,179 | 23,369 |
Machinery | 30,660 | 46,292 | 54,875 |
Apparel and slops | 106,499 | 178,308 | 242,617 |
Boots and shoes | 14,106 | 54,131 | 25,482 |
Saddlery and harness | 8,576 | 14,649 | 13,105 |
Carriage, carts. &c. | 6,963 | 2,326 | 3,375 |
Totals | 148,507 | 312,885 | 368,823 |
New South Wales. | Victoria. | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
year. | Imports. | Exports of own Producers. | Exports of Foreign. | Imports. | Exports of own Producers. | Exports of Foreign. | |
£ | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | ||
1875 | 15 541 | 77 | 547 | 12,621 | 17,703 | 2,324 | |
1880 | 32,051 | 78 | 4,253 | 9,288 | 17,79 | 6,430 | |
1885 | 63,014 | 751 | 6,058 | 15,866 | 29,369 | 6,700 |
— | 1875. | 1880. | 1885. |
---|---|---|---|
£ | £ | £ | |
Total value exported | 20,027 | 23,609 | 36,069 |
Sent to New South Wales of our own production | 7,708 | 12,458 | 25,654 |
Sent to New South Wales of our foreign production | 1,261 | 1,761 | 4,375 |
Total sent to New South Wales | 8,969 | 14,219 | 30,029 |
Balance sent elsewhere | 11,058 | 9,390 | 6,040 |
From these figures we see that not only is our rival increasingly our best customer, but that the goods we make ourselves are preferred to those which are made elsewhere. This particular line has been thus followed out, not because of its own special importance, but because it serves as an illustration for all others. Taking, therefore, the six lines included in the schedule with which we set out, and subjecting them each to the same process of analysis, the following result is attained:—In 1875 New South Wales depended upon foreign sources for its supply of these six products to the amount of £746,474, which amount increased in 1885 to £2,032,398. At the former date this country depended for these things upon foreigners to the extent of £327,406, which amount was decreased in 1885 to £138,665. In 10 years this country has decreased its dependence on the outside producer by far more than one-half, while New South Wales in the same period has-increased its dependence nearly three times over.
The foregoing statistical comparisons and illustrations disprove all the wild assertions which our free-trade critics in the plenitude of conscious infallibility dignify by the sounding name of "axioms," refute their so called scientific arguments, and show by practical resvlts the folly of being led by "doctrinaires" and being beguiled by "authorities," instead of depending upon the teachings of common sense and the invincible logic of figures and facts. In our next we propose to deal with the accumulations of the people in both countries, and so bring the earnings of the industrial class to test the benefits which a community may derive from fostering its native industries.