WITHDRAWAL ACCORDING TO PLAN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 38, 14 February 1945, Page 4

WITHDRAWAL ACCORDING TO PLAN

THE purport of the statement issued by the Prime Minister concerning wages is simply this: The attempt to hold the s'tabilisation line completely rigid proved impracticable. Some groups of workers have had their wages increased, and in consequence the others are to be allowed the opportunity to seek increases, which may be granted by the Arbitration Court to remove disparities. In the language of the military communiques, on the stabilisation front there is to be a withdrawal according to plan. Probably some withdrawal was from the outset inevitable, for economic equilibrium cannot be achieved, or, if temporarily achieved, indefinitely maintained, by regulation published in the Gazette. But the achievement since the scheme was introduced in December, 1942, has been considerable, and New Zealand need not fear its comparison with any other country- Those who criticise stabilisation m detail should do so with due regard to the conditions that would by now have prevailed in its absence. The withdrawal now foreshadowed, and indeed authorised, is to be. an.orderly one, and-to a prepared position. That is to say there is to be no "devil-take-the-hindmost" rush for privileged positions' on the new line. The Court is given power to amend existing awards and agreements "so as to restore the balance between the different classes of workers." How long this will take, if all unions, together with all workers who do not come under the Court's jurisdiction, make use of their opportunity, it is impossible to say; but the pronouncements of new "standard wages" may simplify and possibly accelerate the readjustment. • The fact will not be overlooked that workers of whom the Government itself is the employer, and pensioners whose incomes are fixed by Act of Parliament, will undoubtedly wish to participate in the readjustment, and they can adduce strong arguments to establish their right to do so The farmers' position is to be given "full consideration. The Minister of Finance will have additional claims on his next Budget. What will be the total effect of the readjustment, when it is completed? In so far as it results in adding to the volume of money circulating (already nearly three times the pre-war figure) it will increase the , inflationary pressure, unless there is an increase also in the volume of goods and services produced snd made available for sale; but the increase in spending power will be less than might appear, for the total of earnings through overtime work is already considerably less than it was The best safeguard of the purchasing power of-the pound is, and must continue to be, maintenance and increase of production. All measures which facilitate this help to maintain living standards; all actions which hamper It help to lower them, and to increase the inflationary danger, which, as the Prime Minister has said, becomes greatest in the immediate post-war period.