CAPITAL-LABOUR BOARD.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 222, 18 September 1919, Page 8

CAPITAL-LABOUR BOARD.

TO SETTEE PROBLEMS. EMPLOYERS' PRESIDENT SUGGESTS PLAN. A number of industrial questions were dealt with by Mr. Albert Spencer, president of the" Auckland Provincial Employers' Association, in bis address at the" annual meeting of that body yesterday afternoon. As a measure towards solution of some of the labour difficulties confronting the Dominion. Mr. Spencer suggested that itmight be desirable to ask the Government to call a conference of capital and labour and form a board or committee composed of employers on one side and representatives of skilled labour on the other, to meet in conference and endeavour to get down to bed-rock. Great care, he felt, would have to be exercised to eliminate the extreme element on either, side. If both sides met without bias, and on the common ground of mutual trust and forbearance.'much good would probably result. If the proposed board had full "powers to settle disputes between capital and labour on rational lines it might endeavour to find sonic new method of meeting the wage-earners' needs in place of the present method of raising wages, and the prices of commodities thereby. Increased production was a vital matter in the achievement of this end. PRESENT-DAY PROFITS.

Speaking of employers' profits. Mr. Spencer «iid: "Since the outbreak of war, generally speaking, most businesses have! not made the huge profits some people! r-eem to imagine, and most manufacturers find it impossible to pass on the ever-1 increasin, cost of production. Tn fact, the majority only make a reasonable j interest on the capital so invested, with a little allowed as payment for their own labour. Manufacturers have been compelled to increase their prices, but unfortunately for them this has been all absorbed by the increase in wages and other expenses. In some cases a great many capitalists prefer to invest in 4J to "> per cent. Government bonds rather than run the risk and worry in employing labour, and a great many industries that require the necessary capital languish for want of same. A fair number of employers who are anxious to find a reasoni able return for their capital, and are prepared to invest money in developing some of our natural resources, hesitate I when they find the conditions of- labour !so drastic that the)- naturally look to | some other country where labour de- ! mands are more reasonable."

MORE PRODUCTION NEEDED. ( New Zealand's secondary industries, ho | continued, were hampered by paucity of | population, limit of output, and shorter! hours than those of other countries, j These industries bad developed enor- j mously under war conditions, but there was a possibility that if the labour unions forced their demands for higher wages and shorter hours they would languish and eventually die out. The loss of production in all necessary commodities the world over had caused an inflation of prices, and it had been stated by the highest authorities that increased production was almost the only remedy. In New Zealand there was the most urgent need for a vigorous land settlement policy, with a scheme of agricultural training to fit returned soldiers and ! others to work the Dominion's great | areas of vacant land. Bound up with I increased production was the need for securing industrial peace, and for the development of swamps and waste lands. [ Mr. .Spencer also dealt with the coal trouble, and expressed himself strongly in favour of hydro-electric power develop- j ment.