NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 180, 24 April 1924, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

Anzac Day this year, it inay be hoped, will not pass without inspiring a general determination that an end shall be made of delays in connection with the erection of the National War Memorial, and also of the Wellington civic war memorial. That five amd a half years have elapsed since the Armistice without even the foundation stone of a National War Memorial being laid is a matter of reproach to people in all parts of the Dominion. / All should be eager to lift this reproach before another Anzac Day comes round. The similar delay in proceeding with the Wellington memorial reflects no reproach on the Citizens’ Committee (presided over by Mr. J. P. Firth), which now has the matter in hand. Since it was constituted, somewhat late in the day, this committee has done good work in raising funds and in other ways. It temporarily suspended its operations in order not to conflict with the /Radium Fund collection, and no doubt will be prepared very shortly to give a purposeful lead in pressing the local memorial project to completion.

Deveiopments in Australia to which attention has recently been directed, carry a warning which this country would be wise to heed. For some time past there have been predictions that the over-lavish expenditure of loan-money in the Commonwealth would lead to a crash. These fears may be to an extent exaggerated. The restrictions now being imposed on credit in an effort to check inflation are bound, however, to lead to some depression of Australian trade and industry. The unfavourable aspects of the situation are intensified by the policy of the Commonwealth Government in floating. loans the interest on which is free from other than Federal taxation. The difficulties now taking shape in Australia are evidently not the outcome of a sound policy of development. They are duo primarily to departures from such a policy, notably in an undue concentration of both public and private expenditure on tho development of the principal, cities of the Commonwealth. The policy of safety in Australia, and in this country, is not so much to limit expenditure on development as to concentrate and direct this’ class of expenditure in such a manner as to obtain rapid results in expanding production. In this country, and no doubt also in Australia, the margin of safety against bad times might be broadened greatly by fostering an improvement. in productive methods and so raising standards of efficiency in primary and other industries.

It is claimed by the railwaymen now on strike that they are entitled to wages at least equal in purchasing power to those they received before the war. This claim is supported by the Christchurch Labour members of Parliament in a communication addressed to tho Prime Minister, and a similar demand is now being made on behalf of Post and Telegraph employees. Most people, of course, are agreed that wages ought to be as high as possible, but those who demand wages of pre-war purchasing power ought to be ready tc demonstrate that tho payment of such wages is humanly possible. Everyone, of course, knows that the war has imposed heavy additional burdens on the country—amongst other things an annual charge of approximately six millions sterling for war debt and war pensions—and that its resources are further depleted by heavily increased prices for imports and for external services. It is plainly unjust to claim that any particular class or section is entitled to escape bearing its share of these added burdens and deprivations. In demanding to be placed on a footing as good or better than they occupied in 1914, tho railwaymen and P. and T. employees in the circumstances obviously are demanding something which cannot be given them without penalising the whole of- the rest of the comrrmnity. There is only one way in which a demand for wages giving the same standard of comfort as existed in 1914 can be met with justice to all concerned. That way is to increase production to such an extent as will offset the additional burdens the Dominion has to carry as a result of the war. this, of course, implies an increase in production well beyond the standard of 1914. . There can be no general increase in wages without an increase in production. In the case of the railwaymen and P. and T. employees, "increased production” means, of course, more efficient service. If these State employees are out to obtain an increase of wages without regard to the level of production or the burdens the country has to carry, they should proclaim frankly that their real aim is to better their own lot r-e the expense of tlwir fellow workers and the anst of iha