(a) Employment: At 30 April 1964 the New Zealand labour force amounted to 956,500 workers. Of these, 256,000 (or nearly 27 per cent of the total) were employed in manufacturing industries. By comparison, primary industries then employed 134,000 workers or 15 per cent of the labour force. The manufacturing labour force was distributed within the main industrial groups thus:

The manufacturing industries, besides employing labour; use many of the various other community services: transport and communication, distribution and finance, and administrative and professional. These services employed 406,400 workers at 30 April 1964. In recent years the manufacturing industry has played an important part in keeping up the demand for labour necessary to the Government policy of full employment. Factories also provide much of the national income. The last available estimates (1963–64) showed that factories then earned 25 per cent of the national income.

(b) Capital: At 31 March 1963 the value of land, buildings, plant, and machinery of the 9,034 factories in the official Factory Production Statistics amounted to £317,360,475. Existing factories' capital expenditure on fixed assets during the year amounted to £49,373,000. Figures for the fixed capital expenditure of units not yet in production were not available, but would be substantial. The latest detailed figures for individual industries are available up to 31 March 1963. These showed that the food-manufacturing industries were still by far the largest in terms of fixed capital assets, having 22.5 per cent of the total. Other major industrial groups were: transport equipment, 9.6 per cent; paper and paper products, 11.8 per cent; wood and cork, 5.8 per cent; footwear, other wearing apparel, and made-up textile goods, 5.5 per cent; non-metallic mineral products, 5.5 per cent; and chemicals and chemical products, 5.3 per cent.

(c) Production: In 1962–63 there were 9,034 establishments included in the survey of factory production, which is compiled each year by the Department of Statistics. It is estimated that about 80 per cent of all factories, including all the more important, are in the survey. These factories employed 191,515 workers and the value of output was £840,622,310. Added value – that is the value of the output less the cost of the materials used in production – amounted to £337,740,892 and wages paid were £169,927,222. All of these figures were much higher than those in any previous year, added value, for example, being 6·2 per cent higher than in the previous year and volume of production higher by 4·5 per cent.

The most important industrial group was still that of food processing, the value of output being £276,515,000, and added value, £67,248,000. Manufacturing or repairing transport equipment was next with value of output of £87,998,000 in 1962–63. Wood-products manufacture, footwear and other apparel, textiles, and paper products were also important. The volume indexes of production in the various groups show that significant increases over the previous year were recorded by paper and paper products (18·3 per cent), electrical machinery and appliances (10 per cent), and beverages (9·5 per cent).

(d) Size and Location: Although the manufacturing industry is by now a most important sector of the economy, the average industrial unit is small. In 1962–63, 61 per cent of the 9,034 factories surveyed employed 10 workers or fewer. At the other end of the scale only 134 factories employed more than 200 workers. These larger factories were, in terms of output and value added per worker, the most efficient. This emphasises one of the difficulties of New Zealand manufacturing: most of the units have not developed to the size necessary for most efficient operation. No doubt difficulties of getting capital, the small size and fragmented nature of the market, and, possibly, the lack of desire of the management of the small family-controlled firm to develop beyond a certain size, contribute to this restriction on the growth of factory units.

The location of New Zealand industry has been very largely determined by the distribution of population: more so perhaps than in most countries, because of the fragmented and widespread nature of communities and the need for the earlier industries to supply the local market. Thus the Auckland provincial district in 1962–63 had 3,818 of the 9,034 factories surveyed; Wellington, 1,836; Canterbury, 1,306; and Otago, 919. There is little sign that any industrial group finds an area unsuitable for physical reasons; but areas of high and concentrated population naturally attract new industries. Each industrial group – as distinct from individual industries – has one or more factories in Auckland and Wellington; Canterbury and Otago have factories of every group, except tobacco manufacture.

The ratio of factories to population is also very similar in most districts. Auckland has 40 per cent both of population and of factories; Canterbury has 14 per cent of both. Wellington, however, has a higher percentage of factories than population, no doubt because it is a good centre for national industries – that is, those industries which are so big that they need a national rather than a small, provincial market. Thus Wellington has the main tobacco, vehicle-assembly, and soap plants because it is the best centre for the distribution of these products.

There are recent indications, however, that both Government and private interests favour decentralisation as a positive policy. A £20 million oil refinery has been established at Marsden Point, near Whangarei. The major units in the pulp and paper industry were established near the supplying forests at Kawerau, Tokoroa, and Kinleith. Nevertheless, market attractions and availability of labour are the factors which still have the greatest influence, and in the last seven years three out of each five extra jobs provided by the manufacturing industries have been in the Auckland district.

(e) Export of Manufactures: The export of manufactured goods needs to be briefly touched on in this survey. Paper pulp and newsprint are the largest and the best known. Other products include biscuits, confectionery, invalid foods, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, electrical, agricultural, and dairy machinery, transport equipment, travel goods, clothing, scientific, optical and time instruments, leather manufactures, rubber products, chemical elements and compounds, and a number of other products. The number of manufactured export products is growing every year. On the basis of New Zealand's industrial policy, the capacity of manufacturing to provide more and more products both for local use and for export will be thoroughly tested.