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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 61

Industries Generally

Industries Generally.

In an address to the New Zealand Manufacturers Association the lecturer points out that, taking our imports roughly at six millions, one and a half millions is for articles which could be produced in New Zealand by merely extending the industries already in existence—that is, for articles which we make ourselves, but do not make enough of; one and a half millions is page 96 for articles that could readily be produced by establishing new industries the conditions for which are favourable; one million for articles that could be produced when the resources of the colony are fully developed; and two millions for the products of tropical countries, and manufactures, which there is no chance of superseding by local supplies. It is thus possible to produce and make three-fourths of the goods we buy from other countries. Now, if the people of the colony were fully employed as it is, it would be plain that no anxiety need be felt because of this neglect to produce all we might; it would be merely proof that we were otherwise so profitably engaged that we had not time to grow these things for ourselves, and could, with less labour than it takes to produce them, produce other articles which, being intrinsically more valuable, will more than pay for them—just as a skilled labourer or professional man can by his earnings command the labour of several or perhaps many other lesser skilled men. But, unfortunately, we are not all so profitably employed: there is distress among agriculturists, palpably because they are not growing that which will pay them best; there is dullness in building, because unless there is constant progress in trade building naturally languishes. Manufactures make cities, wool and corn make lords and labourers. Much as we love our Mother-country, we are not to take for gospel all her doctrines of free-trade and open ports. "Grow wool, grain, and meat for us, and we will send you our manufactures in return \" they cry, in a burst of patriotic and liberal generosity. What could be a fairer exchange than this? But we say," No, though the higher aim may be more difficult at first, and may not be so clear in Cobden-like logic, we prefer the task of creating a compact nation in ourselves, a heterogeneous whole, which will have a more glorious and in the end more protecting influence than the arcadian simplicity you so strongly recommend." The discussion on federation has done much to open our eyes to our real position among the colonies, and to the really good work that has been done amongst us, and the openings already made in various industries; but, above all, to the natural advantages we possess from our insular position; and how, if we only push on, we shall be able to carry trade ahead of other colonies or nations, not by unfairly driving them out of what legitimately belongs to them, but by page 97 simply appropriating to ourselves that work which we can best do, leaving to others that which is best suited to them. In all history, has there ever been a great undertaking carried through without some checks or disasters at first? Britons are notorious for requiring a reverse to stimulate them to victory, and refuse to know when they ought to acknowledge a defeat, and so turn many a disaster into a success. The saddest of all sights has been when Britons have divided among themselves in face of a rival or foe; and this was conspicuously the case when the Auckland merchants were competing for the island trade against the German connection. Combination amongst themselves would have carried them through easily; but local rivalries prevented this occurring: and, though satisfactory progress is being made in this trade, the struggle for supremacy is prolonged, when it might have been over and the game in our own hands. Many of our industries are now being worked by joint-stock companies satisfactorily; but the institution of a joint stock company is always a delicate operation: if any icy breath comes upon it when in swaddling clothes it is either killed or rendered sickly, and will have from the beginning the seeds of decline in its constitution. If the fates are propitious it has to meet, then, the attacks of the speculator, the fluctuations of the market, the criticisms of the public, or, perhaps more fatal than all, the overwhelming confidence of the public in sending its shares to a premium, then the risks of inferior management, the changes of management, until at last it either succumbs, or else grows so strong as to resist all such attacks, to become a great institution, wielding perhaps political power, or, what is in the end much the same thing, believed to wield political power, with only wealthy men on its proprietary, and consequently no longer in any true sense a co-operative association, making it a still harder task for the next company in the same line to blossom into life and arrive at maturity.

On the other hand the private manufacturer has to contend against insufficiency of capital, trade jealousy, and, above these, with the difficulty of getting his goods into the market. A general trader finds it inconvenient to trade with Auckland for sugar, cement, or hardware, with Dunedin for woollen fabrics, with Wellington for preserved meat; and still more inconvenient to deal with A, a small maker of tinware; B, a small brush- page 98 maker; and soon. The temptation is to give as large a general order as possible to the representative of an importing house, who can supply many hundred different lines on one invoice. For instance, a man would be likely to buy Portland cement from a local merchant, rather than incur the delay of sending for Mahurangi lime; but if there was a local agent for the lime he might exercise a free choice. The New Zealand Clothing Factory are setting the example of opening retail shops for the sale of their goods in almost every town in the colony, and success appears to be attending the experiment. Should the woollen factories do likewise a great step will be obtained. As communication becomes more and more cheap, regular, and expeditious, so will interprovincial trade increase; and the admirably-conducted weekly journals published in the chief towns are doing much to promote interchange in trade, and to encourage and foster the development of colonial industry, and nearly every week there appears the material for a prize essay on one or more branches of the subject. What they are unable, however, to do is to find the capital for the manufacturer or the roads for the agriculturist: the first must be found by combination, the second by the Government of the country.