Warning Against Industrial Unrest

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29932, 20 September 1962, Page 15

Warning Against Industrial Unrest

At a time when New Zealanders should be completely united to fight to maintain living standards, the country was entering a period of unrest that could only harm every person in New Zealand, said the president of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association (Mr R. H. Stewart) at the association’s annual meeting last evening.

In urging “consolidation” in the face of a challenging economic period ahead, Mr Stewart said that most of those present were employers with the welfare and happiness of their workers at heart.

‘‘Yet the present attitude of certain groups cannot do other than undermine the strength of our economy, reduce our ability to meet competition overseas, lower our output, and, worst of all, break down the trust employers and employees should have in each other.

“The day of the class war should be over and the spirit of co-operation and reason prevailing. I look to the Government elected by the

majority to govern and decide. not persons never given the powers they now profess. The country is too important to all who live in it to be wrecked,” Mr Stewart said. He said that the attitude of “non-consoliidation” was not only apparent in organised labour groups but also between the business and agricultural sections of the community. “Surely the time has arrived for a united front—let the well-being of New Zealand be the objective, not sectional interests,” he said. New Zealand could no longer be isolationist, Mr Stewart added. It was going to be more and more exposed to the drive and weight of countries where standards of living depended on the export of finished goods. “Not only are we starting a bad last, but under worse conditions and less Government encouragement than other countries, so we are handicapped before we even start. I believe the Government realises that it cannot of itself export manufactured goods, so that it must encourage companies owned by private shareholders to get out and sell.” Manufacturers must take advantage of Government trade offices and Governmentassisted trade missions to make every endeavour to sell goods overseas, Mr Stewart said. Internally, industry had to become more efficient, more design-con-scious, and employ techniques of competitors to command a share of overseas and internal markets. Costing for export is essential, for without marginal costs it will be impossible to comipete with overseas products. This is a real challenge to us, and all sections of the community must consolidate for New Zealand to meet this challenge of the future,” Mr Stewart said.

Tyres, .Tubes And Wheels Stolen (N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Sept. 19. Thieves who broke into a store occupied by City Haulage, Ltd., in Freeman’s Bay, Auckland, removed truck tyres, tubes and wheels worth £750. The wheels, 14 in number, were from seven-ton trucks. Each was so heavy it would have taken two men to lift it.