H—44

(d) Agriculture and Dairying Machinery (Year 4943-44) Number of units engaged .. .. .. .. 66 Number of persons engaged .. .. .. 1,460 Annual value of salaries, wages, and drawings .. £430,577 Annual value of production .. .. .. £1,345,388 48. The country is steadily progressing to the stage at which the bulk of the machinery used in the primary industries of New Zealand will be manufactured locally. A small export business is also developing in certain lines, such as churns, curd-mills, and milk-pumps, which are being sold to India, Australia, and the Pacific Islands and -elsewhere. Stainless steel is playing an increasingly important part in the manufacture of all kinds of dairy machinery. Cheese-vats, cream-vats, and pasteurizers are being made of this material, and in this sphere of manufacturing a high standard of workmanship is being maintained. SECTION S.—TEXTILE AND LEATHER DIVISION 49. Included in this divisional group are four of New Zealand's most important manufacturing industries —namely, woollen-milling, hosiery and knitted goods manufacture, clothing-manufacture, and boot and shoe making. A review of the latter is to be found in Part 11, Section 6, of this report. 50. Throughout the year the Department has been closely associated with the ■operations of these industries, both in relation to raw material requirements and production, and the following summarizes the main importations of cloth and yarns during the past year : Type of Material. Quantities imported. *Woollen piece-goods .. .. .. .. 3,722,000 sq. yd. * Woollen yarns .. .. .. .. 1,385,0001b. Cotton piece-goods .. .. .. .. 44,459,000 sq. yd. Cotton yarns .. .. .. .. .. 1,874,000 lb. Rayon piece-goods .. .. .. .. 9,149,000 sq. yd. Rayon yarns .. .. .. .. .. 356,000 lb. * See paragraph 60 for details of local production. 51. The outstanding feature of the year was the reversion to the auction system, of Taw-wool disposal after several years of controlled prices under the appraisal method. At the sales held considerable increases in prices occurred, which will presumably, in due course, affect the prices of yarns, piece-goods, and garments made from this important natural fibre. 52. The importation of woollen and worsted piece-goods and of woollen yarns has continued to be difficult, with a dearth of offers from the United Kingdom, which is our chief overseas supplier. Australia has continued the allocation of piece-goods and yams to New Zealand as in previous years. An interesting innovation for 1947 has been the granting of separate allocations by Australia of worsted cloths (which includes all cloths with a worsted content) and woollen cloths. This has resulted in the necessity for granting separate import licences for each type of cloth imported into New Zealand from Australia. 53. An important event during the year was the withdrawal of the country by country cotton allocation by the United Kingdom Government as from 31st December, 1946. Under this system, which had been in operation for some five years, New Zealand received a quarterly quota of 1,750 tons, which was progressively reduced —firstly, to 1,650 tons in the final quarter of 1945 and then'to 1,150 tons, and subsequently increased to 1,250 tons in the final quarter of 1946.

11