WAR EFFORT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 5, 17 October 1940, Page 6

WAR EFFORT

vitaL suggestions. URGENCY OF STABILISATION. ENSURING ADEQUATE STANDARDS. WAGES, RENTS AND SERVICES. ECONOMIC COMMITTEE’S RECOMMENDATIONS. (Per Press Association). WELLINGTON, This Day. The* general working committee of the Economic Stabilisation Conference lias made a number of recommendations in which it states that it attempted to ensure that, commensurate with the maximum war effort—

(1) Sufficient of the necessities of life will be available to all;

(2) Shortages in the supply of goods will fairly be spread over the whole community;

(3) Prices of goods necessary for the maintenance of a fair standard of living shall be kept down as much as possible ;

(4) The goods value of the pound will as far as possible remain constant.

The committee recommends that the Dominion should as far as possible pay for the war as it goes, firstly by taxation, secondly by internal borrowing. In fairness to Brtain, overseas borrowing should be reduced to a minimum,, hut while labour and materials are available it would not he wise to refrain - from using them in furtherance of the war effort, even if this necessitates overseas borrowing.

Primary production, particularly the goods Britain specially needs, should be developed with the utmost efficiency. The Government should consider overcoming the farm labour difficulty which in the main, results from the disparity between labour conditions on farms and elsewhere.

Increased production is urgently needed in all industries producing for war purposes, and in others, such as the footwear, clothing and building trades.

The committee agrees that in industries where the need for increased production is shown, every effort should be made to achieve it by any or all of the following:

(1) Adequate supply of materials; (2) The best possible use of available labour; (3) Additional hours of work where found necessary.

The committee recommends a greater measure of co-operation between employer and employee, and suggests that voluntary committees of employers and employees should be set up. It is necessary that.the policy of import control should he continued. While recognising the good work of the Price Tribunal, the committee considers that the administering and policing and the present degree of price-control must he greatly improved. The committee agrees that considerable savings could he effected by the adoption of stanlards. To assist in the stabilisation of prices an effort should he made to standardise the range of essential commodities and the present machinery for standardisation should be improved and expanded. In addition, wages, salaries, rents, and prices of the following categories of essential commodities and services should be stabilised: Foodstuffs, standard .articles of clothing, footwear and household necessities, public services, fuel and light. In connection witli housing, the committee agrees that the present rate of building is well below' the hare requirements, and the capital cost of building is unduly high. It makes re<eommendations designed to overcome these difficulties, including remission of sales tax on major items of building materials.

All State and local body expenditure should be carefully surveyed with the object of effecting reductions and economies wherever possible. The committee affirms the principle that no one shall profit out of the war. Everyone Must Share. The Committee states that in making its recommendations it lias kept ip mind the effects of the war on the Dominion’s economy. While men are continuously being absorbed in military service, the whole community must bear the effects of the loss of goods and services either diverted to war purposes or no longer produced because the men are lighting and materials are not here.

The burden should be apportioned so that every citizen, according to his capacity and means bears it. There is also need of increased production. The Budget expenditure has increased and as always in war time the financial policy tends to have an inflationary effect. There is an inevitable tendency for the cost of living to rise and an equally inevitable tendency for real wages to lag behind. These are circumstances common to all countries at war, leading to a state of instability, and the committee’s recommendations are designed to check these ill-effects. Helping National Drive. The committee’s recommendations were designed to achieve two main results: To stabilise prices, wages and costs, so that the cost of the war is not thrown unfairly on one group to the benefit of another, and to increase all kinds of production and the efficiency of every type of service which will help however indirectly, the national drive. It is the individual, working in co-

operation with his fellow citizens, who must achieve this result. No one is exempt. The war strength .of the nation is the sum total of all these individual efforts and not one ounce more. The committee can only suggest the method and only the Government can provide the means. The main task thus falls on each individual in his personal job, whether war work or civil life, to fill each hour with better production and more efficient service.

THE NEED TO KELP. CO-ORDINATING ALL SECTIONS. WELLINGTON, This Day. Addressing the Economic Stablisation Conference which reassembled today to consider the Working Committee’s report, the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) said that since the conference first met the tide of war had rolled nearer New Zealand’s shores. No man could say what the future or the near future had in store for this country and it was more necessary and urgent at the present time to throw all the measures that would tendtqjward cohesion pud soliari.ty into the effort required. The committee had heard a great number of witnesses and long-range evidence had been place before it, and it was now ready to report to a. full conference. The main object of the conference was to got together in a friendly consultation with representatives of all sections of the community and gauge production and distribution so that they would arrive at some means of helping the country. The first! object was to get the greatest measure bf unity to enable a basis on which all interests could work. The conference went in?Tfc committee to consider the report.