INTERFERENCE IN BUSINESS

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25679, 16 December 1948, Page 8

INTERFERENCE IN BUSINESS

PLUMBERS CRITICISE GOVERNMENT

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 15. Alleged Governmfent interference in private enterprise, with special reference to what was described as the current Government policy of advertising lucrative rewards to youths in an attempt to divert labour from private employment, was discussed at a meeting of the Wellington Master Plumbers’ Association, according to a supplied report. The president (.Mr J. W. Kayward) said there was a very real and national danger in the reckless attempts of the Government in these times of labour shortage to ignore inflation in an attempt to build itself a big business. It was private enterprise he said, that provided the money that maintained the many unprofitable Government undertakings.,

“The Railways Department is a large employer of trade apprentices.” said Mr Kayward. “These apprentices are invited to start at a wage equal, in the case of plumbers, to the award rate of a normal three-year aoprentice. That the railways lost about £600,000 last year as the result of a policy of national inertia is, of course, no argument in this case against the policy of inflating wages. “If private enterprise, seeking to employ an nr ent ices to skilled trades, were to follow the example now being set by the Public Service, then we could all nave inflation without waiting any longer.”