Meat: There are 37 main works primarily engaged in meat freezing and preserving for export. They are well spread over New Zealand at or near ports or in the districts which supply stock for killing. This, the largest single industry, employs over 19,000 persons and has an output valued at £128.2 million, 60 per cent of which comes from the North Island. Smaller units cure ham and bacon worth £10.1 million for local use and export.
Dairy Produce: Two-thirds of the 234 butter and cheese factories and 77 other milk-products factories, which employ 4,600 people, employ 10 persons or less. This is a result of limited transport when the industry first started. With the growth of motor transport and, in recent years, the use of the milk tanker, the trend is for dairy factories to grow in size and for small units to amalgamate. Dairy factories are in the main owned cooperatively by the farmers who share in the total proceeds of the final sale of manufactures. The value of production was £58.4 million for butter and £16.8 million for cheese. The output of the “other milk products”, casein, £4.6 million, and condensed and powdered milks, infants' foods, etc., was £7.6 million.
Fruit and Vegetable Preserving: The 35 factories engaged for the most part in preserving and quick freezing fruit and vegetables and manufacturing sauces, pickles, jams, and conserves (output, £9.8 million) have generally been established close to their source of supplies. Nearly half of the 2,200 workers are women.
Other Food Manufacturing: Most of the raw materials used in the rest of the food-manufacturing industries are imported. Significant subgroups are: grain milling, £6.3 million; biscuit making, £4.1 million; and cocoa, chocolate, and sugar confectionery, £6.9 million. These units employ 920, 1,170, and 2,000 persons respectively, and they produce flour, 215,000 short tons; biscuits, 18,000 tons; and chocolate and sugar confectionery, 18,800 tons. About two-thirds of the biscuits and confectionery workers are women. Grain mills are located mainly in Auckland, Canterbury, and Otago Provinces. The largest biscuit factories are in Auckland, Lower Hutt, Christchurch, and Dunedin. Cocoa, chocolate, and sugar confectionery are manufactured chiefly at Auckland, Dunedin, and Christchurch. There is a large sugar refinery at Chelsea, Auckland. Most of the wide range of other food preparations are made in Auckland and Christchurch.
Beverages: The 17 breweries for ale and stout, employing 1,300 persons, have an output of 52.4 million gallons (99 per cent ale) valued at £9.8 million (excluding excise duty). Most of the malt for the breweries is made in Canterbury. Aerated waters and cordials are manufactured by small units mainly in the North Island. Wine making is mainly confined to Auckland and Hawke's Bay and cider is made at Nelson.
Manufacture: In 1962–63 four factories manufactured cigarettes and tobacco at Auckland, Napier, Lower Hutt, and Wellington. In April 1964 there were only two factories – one at Napier and one at Lower Hutt. By regulation, 30 per cent of the tobacco leaf processed must be of New Zealand origin, but for some years the manufacturers have exceeded this percentage. In 1962–63, 50 per cent of the leaf was grown in New Zealand. The neutral New Zealand leaf is well suited to blending with imported tobacco. The value of the output, excluding excise duty, is over £8.9 million.
Employment in this industry, which uses mainly domestic raw materials, is divided thus: wool scouring, 450 persons; woollen milling, 3,680; hosiery and other knitting, 4,200; other spinning and weaving, 1,840; processing of phormium and linen flax, 190; and manufacture of other textile goods, 720.
Wool Scouring: This industry produces, mainly for export, 55 million pounds of scoured wool, 94 per cent of which is scoured on commission. Only 7 per cent of the £14.2 million output is value added in manufacture.
Woollen Mills: These mills are not highly specialised and generally carry out all the processes (including scouring) of converting domestic raw wool into finished products (woollen and worsted yarns and cloths). Imports of cloths and yarns supplement the limited range produced by the mills. The 10 mills in Canterbury and Otago, employing 2,700 persons, produce the greater part of the £7.7 million output. Nearly half the workers in the total of 21 mills are women.
Knitting Mills: These mills are also not highly specialised, except for women's hosiery. Goods to the value of £11.4 million are produced by the 81 units and include women's hosiery, other socks and stockings, and knitted outerwear, underwear, and fabrics. Some units spin their own yarn; others, particularly the small units, have in the past used imported yarn. Over 60 per cent of the output comes from North Island mills. Two-thirds of the staff are women.
Other Spinning and Weaving Mills: The output of £7.2 million from the 17 factories includes carpets, rugs, mattings, rope, and woolpacks. Half the output comes from the South Island.
This group, which employs over 26,000, manufactures footwear (excluding rubber footwear), clothing, gloves, hats, apparel accessories, canvas goods, and many other made-up textile goods. Over 40 per cent of the total workers are employed in Auckland.
Clothing: Over 19,000 people are employed in clothing manufacture. Nearly one-third of the clothing made (output £357 million) is manufactured from the customer's own materials (that is, on a “cut, make, and trim” basis). Many well-known overseas brands are manufactured under licence. Manufacture is spread throughout the country. There are many small units, with Auckland the main centre.
Footwear (Other than Rubber Footwear): The output of £123 million of this long-established industry includes footwear made under licence from overseas manufacturers of well known brands. Manufacture is chiefly in the four main centres where there are large well equipped factories.
Sawmilling, with an average-sized unit of 11 persons, employs 5,900 workers and produces 617 million bd. ft. of rough-sawn timber, valued at £20.6 million. Exotic pines and the native rimu form most of the timber sawn, nearly 60 per cent of which is produced in the Auckland Province from the native forests of the King Country and the native and exotic forests of the Bay of Plenty. There are over 5,800 persons engaged in planing mills and joinery factories with an output of £24.2 million. These operate in or near towns, with three-quarters of the mills in the North Island. Other units manufacture wooden containers for the export trade, plywood, veneers, turnings, handles, dowelling, mouldings, and various household utilities.
All sizeable towns have at least one (usually small) furniture factory. The output is £11.8 million. Over 70 per cent of the furniture is made of wood, from 19 million bd. ft. of local timbers (rimu, tawa, Southland silver beech, and radiata pine); but some imported decorative timbers and fancy imported plywoods and veneers are used. Steel office furniture, venetian blinds, and wire and innerspring and soft-filled mattresses are also manufactured.
Pulp and Paper: The New Zealand paper industry began in Otago in 1877, when two mills were established, one of which still operates in Mataura. Today the industry's seven units employ about 2,800 people. The exotic forests of the Auckland Provincial District provide the raw materials, and the plants are located at Penrose (Auckland) and in the Rotorua district at Kinleith, Kawerau (two units), Whakatane, and Christchurch. Present production covers most of New Zealand's pulp and paper needs, and in 1963 the first commercial runs of “printing and writing” papers were made. Expansion since the Second World War has been spectacular – production of mechanical pulp has increased from 16,851 tons in 1945–46 to 188,290 tons in 1963–64, chemical pulp, from 7,413 tons in 1953–54 (the first year of production) to 181,197 tons; newsprint, from 9,000 tons in 1955–56 (first year of production) to 168,000 tons; other paper, from 6,366 tons in 1945–46 to 82,922 tons; paper-board, from 11,605 tons to 45,098 tons; and fibre-board, from 8,672 tons to 29,229 tons. The value of the production of pulp, paper, and paperboard for 1962–63 was £23.0 million, with an additional value in manufacture of £15.8 million. For the year ended 30 June 1963 exports were 72,061 tons of newsprint (£4.0 million), mainly to Australia, and 69,067 tons of wood pulp (£2.7 million), mainly to Australia, South Africa, South-East Asia, and the United Kingdom. The principal “other papers” are kraft wrapping paper and toilet and wrapping tissues. From the kraft paper are made multiwall and other bags, container board, laminated-plastic-surfaced materials, and building, gumming, waxed, and wrapping papers.
Paper and Paperboard Products: Nearly half of the cardboard-box, carton, and paper-bag factories are in Auckland and most of the remainder are in the other main centres. Other factories (one-third of which are in Auckland and one-quarter in Wellington) produce stationery and a wide variety of goods, particularly from light tissues. About 40 per cent of the staff of 3,550 in the conversion units are women. Output was £18.8 million.
Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin account for nearly three-quarters of the 12,100 workers. Relative to population, the number employed in Wellington is very high, owing to the presence there of Parliament and Government Departments (including the Government Printing Office), and of the head offices of many private firms.
Until 1900 tanning was done in many places, but the trade has suffered from the declining use of harness and saddlery, the loss of its export markets for finished leather (which gave way to the export of hides and skins), and the increased use of synthetic materials. About a million hides, skins, and pelts are used annually, producing over a hundred different types and grades of leathers, including coloured leathers, for the manufacture of footwear and all types of bags and sporting and industrial leather goods.
The first factory was set up at Auckland in 1933. Three plants manufacture tyres and tubes valued at £6.0 million at Auckland, Upper Hutt, and Christ-church and employ approximately 900 people. Moreover, 1,600 people, mainly in Christchurch, are employed producing general rubber goods worth £5.5 million.
The 12 superphosphate works, located mainly near ports, produce about a million tons of fertiliser a year. The industry uses rock phosphate from Ocean and Nauru Islands and sulphuric acid manufactured from imported sulphur. Some superphosphate is compounded with trace elements; some, again, is made into pellets for aerial topdressing. Twenty-five manufacturers of paint and varnish supply New Zealand's main needs. Most of the output of £6.8 million comes from firms in Auckland and Wellington. Factories in Petone account for much of the soap production of £3.4 million. The soap industry also produces candles and recovers crude glycerine. Pharmaceutical preparations, toilet goods, and cosmetics, valued at £4.6 million, are made in the main centres, where many other items are manufactured for farm, household, and industrial use.
Crude petroleum from three nearby wells is refined at New Plymouth, producing small quantities of oil and supplying some natural gas daily to the town. If the recently discovered supplies of natural gas in South Taranaki prove to warrant development within the next few years, it is expected that this source will meet a large portion of the North Island's needs for gas heating. It is also expected that useful quantities of condensate (mainly light oil) will become available for processing at the Marsden Point Refinery, Whangarei. A number of factories refine used lubricating oils, blend lubricating oils, and manufacture greases, foundry coke, carbonettes, creosote, tar, and various bituminous products.
Nearly all the raw materials used by this group are of New Zealand origin. There is usually a natural protection afforded the units because of the bulky nature of the product and the possibility of breakage during transport. Bricks, tiles, and earthenware pipes, valued at £2.5 million, various concrete products (roofing tiles, posts, wash tubs, troughs, etc.), valued at £7.8 million, and fibrous-plaster building materials are produced in widely dispersed units. There are 82 lime works producing 870,000 tons, chiefly of agricultural lime, to a value of £13 million. Other sections of the industry manufacture insulators, crockery, sanitaryware, and other earthenware; two major glass manufacturers produce jars, bottles, and pressed and blown glassware; and a number of small units produce mirrors and leadlights, and carry out glass-bevelling work.
Cement: Six works produced 653,000 tons of cement, valued at £5.7 million, in 1962–63. These units meet local needs for Portland cement.
Smelting and refining is confined to the reclamation of scrap metals and, up to the present, iron and brass founding has been the main activity in this group. A plant to smelt and reroll steel scrap into merchant-bar products (such as reinforcing rod and engineering rounds and flats) has been established in the North Island. Other activities include steel founding, lead rolling, extrusion of lead, brass, and aluminium forms, and copper-wire drawing and its insulation. In 1962–63 the output of this group was valued at £5.6 million.
The high rate of building construction during the last decade, and the rising standard of living, have contributed to the substantial growth of this industrial group and of the allied engineering and electrical industries. Those associated with metal products manufacture basic metal forms into finished articles – tinware, hardware, holloware, nails, bolts, and nuts. Some 85,000 milk and other buckets were made in 1962–63, as well as 51,000 water heaters; 42,000 stainless-steel and other sinks; 6 million yards of woven field fencing; 9,000 tons of steel-wire nails; 6,900 tons of steel pipes and fittings; 48,000 tons of fabricated structural steel; 3,900 tons of bolts, nuts, rivets, washers, and screws; 20,500 wheelbarrows; and many other items, including garden and tradesmen's tools; components for other engineering and electrical industries; dairying, hospital, and dental equipment; and structural builders' and plumbers' hardware.
The most important items, in terms of value of output, are farm machinery (£4.6 million), 40,000 washing machines (£2.1 million), 35,000 refrigerators (£3.4 million), and 54,000 lawnmowers (£1.5 million). Some earth-moving equipment is made. The manufacture of farm machinery is concentrated in Auckland and Christchurch, with one important unit in Dunedin. The remainder of the industry is mainly in Auckland (nearly 50 per cent of the total), Wellington, Lower Hutt, and Christchurch.
There has been rapid growth in this group since 1945. Production includes 38,000 ranges (£2.0 million), 83,000 radios (£0.9 million), 64,000 television sets (£5.4 million), and 345,000 storage batteries (£1.5 million), and comes mainly from the four centres: Auckland, television sets (radios and appliances); Wellington – Lower Hutt (ranges, television sets, radios, and appliances); Christchurch (ranges and wiring accessories); and Dunedin (ranges and appliances).
Ninety per cent of the plants in this group are engaged in repairing motor vehicles. These plants are evenly spread throughout the country. Value added in manufacture accounts for 51 per cent of the £42.2 million value of output, compared with 24 per cent of the £32.2 million output of the 17 motor-vehicle assembly plants. These highly mechanised assembly plants employ 3,220 people, 2,160 of whom are in the seven firms in Wellington. Five units in Auckland employ 740, and five in Christ-church, 317; 36,000 cars and 8,600 trucks, vans, and buses were assembled from imported “completely knocked down” units. The balance of this industry group consists of motor-body building (£3.6 million), aircraft maintenance and repairs (£4.2 million), ship repairs and boatbuilding (£2.5 million), and the manufacture of such goods as piston rings, mufflers, and perambulators.
Other goods produced comprise jewellery (including paua shell and greenstone jewellery), toys (nearly three-quarters of domestic needs), sporting goods, brushes (household and industrial), and buttons (from imported plastic and domestic casein powders).
by Henry Curran Holden, M.A., Director, Trade Relations and Economics Division, and Economist, Department of Industries and Commerce, Wellington.