"IRRESPONSIBLE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 114, 15 May 1936, Page 9

"IRRESPONSIBLE."

OPPOSITION COMMENTS FACTORIES ACT AMENDMENT. ADVANCED LEGISLATION. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. Statements made by Opposition speakers in criticism of the Factories Amendment Bill were described as "hysterical and irresponsible," and as "mythical nonsense," by Mr. A. S. Richards (Government, Roskill), who resumed the second reading debate 011 the bill in the House of Representatives this afternoon. Mr. Richards reviewed the history of industrial legislation in New Zealand, and said that the first Factories Act, passed in 1873, was a far more revolutionary measure than the present bill. The main theme of the Opposition speeches, he said, was that the employers

could not bear the cost, and he quoted statistics for a number of industries in support of liis contention that the bill would not prove a handicap to industry. According to the returns for 1934-35. said Mr. Richards, a group of 5800 persons had their aggregate incomes assessed for income tax at £(>0.000,000. Mr. H. G. Dickie (National, Patea): Does that include companies? Mr. Richards: I'm talking of people. It would mean that 1A per cent of the adult male population of New Zealand took 30 per cent of the country's assessable income. Dealing with the objections to the reduction of working hours, Mr. Richards asked where was the increased production to go if the Government failed to raise the purchasing power to enable the people to consume the poods nowbeing produced in abundance. The same predictions of disaster were heard when a Mr. Bradshaw introduced the first factory legislation in 1873. Mr. Richards denied that the bill was revolutionary, or that it would destroy factories and restrict production. "In actual fact," he added, "it is modest and tame in the extreme by comparison with the factory legislation laid down in New Zealand 03 years ago." He was hoping that as a result of the operation of the bill the Minister would find it necessary in the near future to introduce a more advanced measure. The factory legislation of the past was undoubtedly the most advanced of any such legislation in the world. So beneficial was its results in the Dominion that other countries copied it and the industrial law of New Zealand became the admiration of the world.