POST-WAR PROBLEMS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 9, 21 October 1943, Page 2

POST-WAR PROBLEMS.

PLAN FOR RECONSTRUCTION. MANUFACTURERS AND FARMERS CONFER. ’ CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. A conference called by the Canterbury Progress League in Christchurch yesterday to consider post-war reconstruction problems requested the league to set up a committee to divide Canterbury into suitable areas, for investigation. The league was also requested to direct local bodies, chambers of commerce, and other organisations as to the information required. All interests represented, it was urged, should pledge themselves and their organisations to carry out, as far as was possible, any reasonable investigation asked for by the committee.

On the motion of Mr K. B. Cumberland, lecturer in geography at Canterbury University College, the conference recommended that the Government and people of New Zealand should be urged to take steps to fulfil their duty as subscribers to the Atlantic Charter, and, in particular, to carry out the recommendations of the United Nations conference on food and agriculture, which was held at Hot Springs, Virginia, in May. A third resolution expressed approval of the principle of decentralisation of industry.

The conference, which was attended by about 80 delegates, will probably be called together again in a few months’ time. Mr S. P. Taylor, of Eiffelton (president of the league), was in the chair. The conference was opened by the Mayor (Mr E. H. Andrews). “If post war reconstruction means no more than the resumption of business, whatever it is, for the sake of business, Ave shall commit ourselves to the same blunder as followed the last Avar,” said Mr J. E. Strachan, chairman of the league’s postwar development committee. “The same irreconcilable conflicts will emerge again. As soon as the tension of war is released we shall have to avoid a relapse into the futilities of moneymaking, senseless chasing after excitement and sensation, and playing the fool —pursuits that can never satisfy, for they are not life, but only substitutes for life. We shall have the same loss of confidence in the future, the same sense of instability and insecurity, the same uneasy truce as a prelude to the resumption of suicidal war.”

But, on the. other hand, there Avas an opportunity, he declared, to carry over into the peace a great measure of that devotion to a cause which had united people during the war years. “We shall he able to take advantage of the fine spirit and quality of the youth of the community—those who have passed through the fiery ordeal of war, and those others, still at school or carrying on the work of their fathers and brothers on farm or in. factory, all hoping and believing in the fight for a better world,” -Mr Strachan said. Fields of research indicated* by the speaker to facilitate organisation and the growth of small business, included: restraints on monopolistic practices, channelling savings into business investments, maintenance of consumer incomes, control of money and credit, and the international economic position of the United States. “Populate or Perish.” The problems confronting the farming community were not so much technical as social, said Professor E. R. Hudson, director of Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln. “Unless Ave can subscribe Avhole-heartedly to the spirit of the Atlantic Charter I do’ not think we can look forward with much confidence to the future,” he added. Already there were signs, lie said, of hedging. One of the most serious problems to be faced in his opinion Avas that of the declining birth-rate, and he referred to an article under the heading of “Populate or Perish” by Professor lan Clunies Ross, of Sydney University, which had appeared in “The Press.” Within the lifetime of our grandchildren, or even sooner, he continued, we would be “on the spot.”

Professor Hudson said that the problem of population was closely related to the land, as it was essential that there should be a prolific and selective population there because, hitherto, the trend had been for the country to replenish the population of the cities.

There was a tremendous loss of manpower in his opinion in commercial life to-day in New Zealand, and far too much duplication. It was essential, therefore that some of that labour should be diverted to the rural communities. Tribute to Women. Professor Hudson concluded by paying tribute to the work of New Zealand women on the land. “While we know that the farmers are doing everything possible to increase production,” he said, “we also know that much of that work is being performed by women. In some cases it is a burden almost more than they can bear.” Many of the young women now “tickling typewriters” in the cities would be far better employed learning mothercraft and other important functions of life in country homes. “So long as we prefer a baby car to a baby boy or girl,” Professor Hudson said, “we are heading for race annihilation.”

Messrs A. A. McDonald (Borough Council), C. A. Campion, and G. Kelly (County Council), W. Bryant (Tinwald Town Board), and E. F. Nicoll and H. G. Kemp (Electric Power Board) represented tlnjir respective organisations at the conference.