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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 12
The first point of comparison which would occur to 19 out of 20 persons engaged in studying the subject would be the number of factories possessed by each. Turning to the records for this information, we find in each a tabulated statement, headed " Manufactories, works," &c., and purporting to set out the numbers and descriptions of such establishments for 10 or 11 years. The number of such works, &c., given by New South Wales in its return, is 9727 for the year 1875. and 22,257 for the year 1885. Our records give the number for Victoria for these two years respectively, as 2242 and 2828. Anyone looking at these figures would, of course, imagine that beyond question New South Wales had distanced Victoria completely in this direction. When we come to examine the details of the respective schedules in order to ascertain how the figures are made up, and what kind of manufactories they are which go to swell the numbers, the following astounding fact is revealed:—New South Wales, in order to make a good show as far as bare numbers can affect it, has included every agricultural implement used in the country as a separate "manufactory." Thus, taking the last year, 1885, it is seen that in the total of 22,257 there are included:—
Reaping 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.

In order rightly to appreciate the immense progress this country has made in these industries since the adoption of the policy of protection, it is necessary to compare the figures of 1885 relating thereto, with those of 1865. This is done in the following table:—
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.

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There is one other way of looking at this question or basing a comparison, and that is from the side of foreign trade. As this is the favorite aspect from which to view everything, according to our free-trade opponents, it will repay presentation in this instance. In order that full justice may be done to New South Wales, the industries selected for comparison are those which from necessity had been established in that country, and which could, if any could, have flourished and progressed without the aid of a protective tariff. If there were any truth in the assertion that our rival is overtaking us as a manufacturing country, there would be sure and unmistakable proof of the fact in the statistics of its foreign trade in its own products. As it is during the last 10 years that this advance is declared to have been made by New South Wales, our comparison is confined to that period. The following statements show what have been the exports of its own products in half a dozen lines by each country for the years 1875, 1880 and 1885 respectively:—
Articles 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
The only line in the above list which shows any increase in the decade is machinery, and that is so small as not to be worth mentioning. The only line which approaches to a respectable trade is boots and shoes, and that is stagnant and declining, for the reason that the trade in rough coarse boots which New South Wales can alone make under its tariff has been all secured, and cannot be increased. On the whole there is a considerable falling off during the period, and it shows conclusively that, so far from advancing, these industries are being gradually destroyed by the competition of Victoria and other countries. Turning now to our own exports in these articles of our own produce, a very different state of things is to be observed:—
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
Will anyone, comparing these figures with those given for New South Wales, venture to assert that our industries with this large and steadily increasing foreign trade in their products, are being outstripped by their rivals across the border with their beggarly and declining exports as above shown? It is possible that some fanatic may be found foolish enough to go even that length, but no one capable of forming an unbiassed opinion will believe the statement. It will hardly be credited that New South Wales claims to have 974 factories engaged in the above six industries, employing 12,183 hands; while we only claim to have 604, employing 18,687 hands, and machinery worked by 2616 horse power. The difference between the two classes of establishments could not well be more clearly defined than it is by this one illustration alone of their relative foreign trade. It may be said, however, that New South Wales-consumes the products of these industries itself, and therefore has none left to export, while Victoria, after sending so much of its own product abroad, has to depend upon foreign supplies for its own use. This would be a clear way out of the difficulty in which the above facts and figures place our free-trade authorities if it were true. Unfortunately, however, for them, the reverse of all this is the truth. Let us take the first item on the list to prove our assertion, and it will serve the same purpose for every manufacturing industry we have. As New South Wales only cultivates about one-third the area which Victoria does, we may safely calculate that one-third the quantity of agricultural implements will satisfy its requirements. Further, as New South Wales claims to have 75 agricultural implement factories, while Victoria claims only 55, a very natural inference would be that New South. page 15 Wales would supply all its own wants in this direction and have a large surplus to export, while Victoria would have nothing to export, but would require to depend upon outside support for a large portion of its demand. The following table shows the exports and imports for the three years of agricultural implements, and the net amount to which each country was dependent upon foreign supplies:—
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
Deducting the total exports from the imports in the case of New South Wales, for the first and last years in the table, we find that the extent to which foreign supplies had to supplement the output of its own 75 factories was £14,917 in 1875, and £56,195 in 1885, notwithstanding the enormous strides we are told these industries have made during these same 10 years. We have to reverse this operation with the Victorian figures, as with us the exports have largely exceeded the imports. In 1875 this excess was £7406, showing that our factories supplied all our own requirements, which are at least three times as great as those of New South Wales, and left us a surplus to sell abroad of £7406 worth. In 1885, with a largely increasing home demand to supply, we had increased the amount of this exported balance to £20,203. It is the same, too, in connection with this article as with most others. New South Wales, in spite of the blessings of free-trade, is the best customer which benighted and protected Victoria has. The figures below will make this perfectly clear:—
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.