LABOUR AIM

Evening Post, Issue 28, 1 August 1936, Page 14

LABOUR AIM

NEW ZEALAND'S PART

SPEECHES AT GENEVA

SOCIAL WELFARE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, June 27.

I Loyalty to the International Labour ; Organisation at Geneva was promised by Mr. R. McKeen, Government representative of New Zealand, in an address on June 15 to the delegates sitting in conference on the consideration of the 40-hour week. He gave an assurance that the present Dominion Labour Government intended to play a hjore active part in the work of the organisation than its predecessors ever chose to do. Mr. G. T. Thurston, the New Zealand workers' delegate, declared that the Dominions' statesmen were now busy putting into operation social legislation that could not be bettered anywhere. He threatened that New Zealand employers would learn sooner or later that if they could not so manage industry to give the service that the community required, other means of providing those goods and service would be found. Mr. McKeen said he was in complete agreement with the view that the underlying causes which had brought the world once more face to face with disaster were largely to be found in the deep-seated flaws in the economic structure. The sooner the nature of those flaws was realised by the statesmen of the world, the sooner would a conscious effort be made by respective Governments to formulate schemes of national planning, and by legislative enactment, to attack the inherent weakness of the economic structure in such a way as to promote the social security of nations and the permanent peace of the world.' LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS. With that aim in view, he said, the New Zealand Labour Government was laying the foundations upon which to complete.a system of healthy, happy human beings, free from the destructive blight and degradation of unemployment and the curse of war. Mr. McKeen reviewed the measures enacted by the Labour Government in New Zealand since it had taken office, and referred to the restoration of the compulsory provisions of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration system for settling industrial disputes. He also stated that the 40-hour week was to be established for all industry except retail shops, and that .any employer was enabled to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for a moderate extension of the weekly hours. Provision, he said, had also been made for the fixation of a basic wage calculated according to the cost of living for a man, his wife, and three children. Mr. McKeen said that he had examined with interest the report regarding workers' nutrition and social policy, prepared in accordance with the resolution moved last year by the Australian and. New Zealand delegates. The report, Jie continued, contained a great deal of valuable information and he would urge that efforts be continued to stimulate a progressive policy in this matter. As regards nutrition, the peoples of the world were no longer prepared to tolerate the paradox of poverty when plenty was so clearly within their grasp. . DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME. In order to:achieve that abundance, a juster.distribution of income was inevitable to enable the wealth created to be,consumed by the human family instead of/ .being' destroyed as it was in many instances in the world today. Mr. McKeen,also had a word to say about the shortage of houses in New Zealand, estimating the total to be 20,000. He explained that a survey was being varied put to show where the need for additional accommodation was most urgent. Mr. McKeen promised the conference that the present. New Zealand Government intended to play a; much more active part in the work ofj International Labour organisation than its predecessors ever' chose to do. The volume of urgent legislation with which it had had to deal since its accession to power had been so great that it had not been possible as yet to undertake the ratification' of "International Labour conventions. "But," said Mr. McKeen, "I am happy to be able to state that it is the intention of my■'•; Government to proceed with such ratification as soon as possible, beginning ~ with those'". conventions which are already covered by existing legislation in New Zealand." WHAT NEW ZEALAND IS DOING. Mr. Thurston .began by assuring the conference that the workers of New Zealand-held-the International Labour Office, and its work, in very high esteem, considering that the organisation did not necessarily render useful service to the workers of the world alone but a general service in the interests of mankind the world over. Its value as such would increase as years passed by. Any assistance that New Zealand could give to the governing body would be readily forthcoming. The questions raised by the director of the conference in his address was referred to by the New Zealand delegate. These were: (1) As a result of the collapse of the old system in 1929 are 'we beginning to grasp the essential principles upon which the future wellbeing of mankind must be constructed? (2) Is there even sufficient political sense in Europe or Asia to make world, recovery possible at all? (3) Or is our whole civilisation slipping into disintegration and dissolution, from which our ministry of the material universe is impotent to preserve it. For New Zealand he could say that the first two of these potent questions were being ( answered in the affirmative. It was political nonsense and sheer' stupidity that brought about a state of conditions in New Zealand unequalled in history. New Zealand had told those people who were responsible to get out. They had asked for a Government that would deal with the people as human beings and that would administer the country in an ordinary common-sense orderly and thoroughly social manner. New Zealand's statesmen were now busy putting into operation social legislation which was not to be bettered anywhere.. They had restored purchasing power, they were reducing the hours of work to 40 hour-s per week, and taking charge of the purchasing power by taking charge of the banking system. New Zealand had grasped the essential principles in the face of remarkable opposition backed always by a national twice-daily Press. The Government recognised the stupendoustask before it, said Mr. Thurston, and, following Mr. McKeen's example, he adumbrated the manner in which it was being tackled. The employers of New Zealand were opposing the legislation of the present Government, which would be very surprised if they did not. But the employees would learn sooner or later that they were not the only, people in the community, and that if they could not so manage industry and give the services that the community required, and must have, other means of providing those goods and services would be found. It might be truthfully said that New Zealand had grasped the situation, without loss of blood, except that whiteh was lost in the nightmare

of existence that many people had experienced during the past four or five years. New Zealand was looking forward to future prosperity for the first time in its history. During the conference, Mr. McKeen presented the report of the committee on the Reduction of Hours and Work on Public Works in the Building and Civil Engineering Industry.