WAGES REDUCTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 86, 13 April 1931, Page 8

WAGES REDUCTION.

PROPOSALS DEFENDED. BENEFIT TO BUSINESS. CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE VIEW The Government's policy of wages reduction is defended in a statement issued by the Associated Chambers of Commerce of Xew Zealand. The wage reduction measures irHudvi in the Government's Finance Bill v-ili when brought into effect, give p 702 and welcome relief to a great number of businesses which, under the present conditions, are barely able to carry on says the statement. Though op P (W: of wage reduction pretend to belie™ the contrary, those who will receive I large share of the benefit include fll primary producers, the section of the community. Their direct expenditure upon wages is not impr*,. sively large, but they help, pay a very large share. The cost of everything they buy is affected bv Z wages paid to those who make or handle it. The wage standard of tfe country affects also the farmer's retE-n from everything he selLs, for, whih rif nominal price he receives is, in *ener>] fixed outside >.ew Zealand, he hasfto nav transport and handling and merchant ing charges that are regulated bv W local wages. A wage scale which 'i*j through economic changes, becoTie extravagint is thus shown as a definite hanlirap to production, whereas can only be maintained if stimulated. ' '"

Even, more important than is the fabric of conditions and restrictions with which awards have hampered almost every form of industry in the country. Unnecessarily strict" lines of demarcation between trades apprenticeship conditions; ironclad rules about hours of work, and many other restrictions place manufactuers under a handicap which makes it impossible for them to compete in the market against the products of less hampered manufacturers abroad. Many of the conditions imposed upon industry, moreover, mav be tolerable enough for those who are in business on a large 'scale, b"Tt «m>>ie impossibly large overhead costs upon small yet equally worthy concerns. These are broad facts wlrch have onlv to be pointed out to meet with the approval of moderate and sensible Labour leaders, who, notwithstanding the official opposition of the Labour party, may be relied upon to recognise the imperative need for a review" and readjustment of arbitration awards.