The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 1941. LIVING STANDARDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 88, 15 April 1941, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 1941. LIVING STANDARDS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the vyrong that reeds resistant*, For the future fa the distance, A nd the good thai tee can do.

Six months have passed since the Economic Stabilisation Conference made fifteen recommendations designed to ensure that "commensurate with the maximum war effort, sufficient of the necessities of life will be available to all, shortages in the supply of goods will be fairly spread over the whole community, prices of goods necessary for the maintenance of a fair standard of living will be kept down as far as possible, and the goods value of the pound will, as far as possible, remain constant." The objective thus expressed was admirable, but the Government which had called the conference did nothing in particular to carry out. its recommendations. Xow, as similar recommendations have been made by the executives of the Labour party and the Federation of Labour, it is possible that an attempt will be made to give effect to them, although in the meantime there has been an important change in the Dominion's circumstances. The resolution now submitted to the Government is an important one, inasmuch as it specifically mentions the need to stabilise wages as well as prices. The one is as important as the other. "It is not possible," declared the Economic Conference, "to stabilise money wages unless essential commodities are available at prices fixed for the same period as money wages." The Labour Conference has endorsed this view, and has evidently left to the Government the thorny problem of determining what measures should be taken to reach the desired objective. It did not suggest, for instance, how a union which decides to seek higher wages in the Arbitration Court is to be prevented, or how it is to be deterred from striking in support of demands which the Court may refuse.

It is of course not practicable to stabilise the prices of commodities imported from abroad, or the prices of commodities locally made from imported raw materials; but these do not bulk large in the category of "essential foodstuffs, standard articles of plothing and household necessities." It is unfortunately likely to be the case that some essential foodstuffs— butter and meat —will be in surplus supply, so that the stabilisation of their prices will not be difficult; nor is it prudent to exclude the possibility that other exportable produce, too, will have its overseas market restricted as the result of the sea war. It may be that the New Zealand pound will be able to buy more of these home-produced essentials rather than less—provided the consumer has the pound. On this question—the degree to which the Dominion's economy may be undermined by the progressive restriction of our export opportunities —the Labour Conference's resolution is silent. The evident assumption is that money wnges will not be lowered, and that the prices of essentials must be made to fit them. Yet, if butter and meat exports are severely restricted—which is the almost certain pi-ospect—the volume o£ purchasing power will be commensurately reduced. It is deplorable that the Labour Conference, according to its published resolution, did not heed the large warning signal of export restriction. Its concern, evidently, was to protect standards of living without thinking overmuch of the threat to their economic basis.