THE OUTLOOK.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17227, 18 August 1921, Page 6

THE OUTLOOK.

DOMINION'S INDUSTRY AND

COMMERCE.

ADDEESS BY MB T. S, WESTON.

Mr T. S. Weston, president of the New Zealand Federation of Employers, in responding to the taast of "The Advisory Board" at tho annual meeting of the Canterbury Employers' Association last night, dealt at'some length with the present industrial and economic state of the Dominion. Mr Weston said that the Advisory Board displayed a great deal more patriotism in its deliberations and decisions than it was given credit for. Most employers recognised that unless the measures they advocated were in the best interests of the Dominion, in the long run they would not benefit employeis. They might make mistakes, they might be biassed occasionally and uneonsuously by self-interest; but, taking it ail round, they tried to act for the best of the whoie community. (Applause.) With regard to the workers generally—and lie was speaking of the normal sane workers —he thought that they all had the greatest respect for them. Troublesome as the miners might be. yet for the individual miner they could not but have the highest respect and greatest liking. He thought that the historian looking back oyer the past three years, and examining the whole position carefully, would say that a great deal of the high cost of living in the past three veare, was caused by the coal difficulty. To a very great extent it had led to the high cost and scarcity of cement, and had paralysed the polcy l of re-building. Tho existing scarcity of I houses in the Dominion would continue to exist as 'long as the cost of building I remained as high as at present. (Aj>j plauto.) There was an immense amount I'of work to be done immediately the consumer realised that costs had reached bottom: it was a emmon trait witu I everyone that they liked to get in "on the ground floor/' Immediately the i consumer r.ealisud that costs had reach- ! get in "on the ground floor" there would be an immense spurt in industry. There was no reason whatever why a large amount of the toal consumed in New Zealand ahould not be produced in the Dominion. But the. policy of the extremist leaders and the miners had been disastrous to the Dominion; it had put industry of all kinds to the immense expense of importing coal: the present deficit on the workinj of the railways was due to. tho very farge expenditure on coal imported regam'ess of cost; the same applied to gasworks, to freezing and shipping companies. The policy of restricted production introduced by the miners' lenders, came not from New Zealand, but from abroad—trom Germany through the I.W.W. fie did not like to think that these extremist leaders realised it consciously that the policy of reduced production, and of irritating tactics struck at the very robts of the Dominion's industrial life. The demand for a five-day week, for shorter hours, for the abolition of the contract system—these demands had not been introduced by New Zealanders, but had come to the miners' leaders here from abroad: and those who were seeking to enforce them were doing so in concert with the extremists in Great Britain and on the Continent. If they could believe the Duke of Northumberland and other men who spoku with authority in England, the miners' leaders were actuated by German and Russian influences.. They had had to fight these demands, and would haye to continue to fight them. In theAu.days, when they, had to make up the, gaps and loss in the world's wealth, caused by the. war, it was idle to hope, that life would be less strenuous than it was in the 3ays before the.war. He waß one of those who thought that eight hours' work f a day was good for a man, and that men who had too much time on their hands were apt to go backwards instead of forward, and that too much recreation was no good. One,of the 'benefits of the hard times through which they were passing would be, he hoped, a return to sinipler pleasures and to o simpler mode dr life. \ From all quarters of tho Dominion he heard that the individual worker was realising the position, and that his efficiency was increased, and he was cooperating loyally with the employers.in getting an increased result. He was not going to say that this was disinterested—they were all human, and he himself recognised that he <lid better work when driven by necessity than "when driven by his ow/i inclination. There was no spur like necessity. With the hard times they wore now passing through, it was only the best man—employer and employee—that would be able to get through. He was not going to say that the some law that applied to the employee did hot apply to the employer; just as these times would compel evetfy worker to do his very best, so they would force employers to do their gest. Though tha times were bad, there were many rays,of sunshine —it was not a gloomy outlook they had to face. It was true that importing houses and the wool industry had had a very hard knock; on the other hand, ahe dairying industry was most prosperous; the" New Zealand Dairy Company, Auckland, last year handled more dairy produce than was handled by all the dairy companies in 1913. It was very hard to put a limit on the progress the dairy industry would make in the nest ten years. If the cabled statement were true regarding un mployment in the United States—that five million odd people were unemployed—Now Zealand could congratulate itself thatJt had nothing like 48,000. unemployed, which would be the case if. proportionately, it was in as bad a condition as the United States,