WORKERS TO SHARE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 69, 23 March 1939, Page 10

WORKERS TO SHARE

PRODUCTION INCREASE

MR. SAVAGE'S PLEDGE

APPEAL TO ALL

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, March 22,

"My pledge is that every increase in production shall be reflected in your income. You are going to get your share," said the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage), addressing employees of an Auckland factory today. "We are engaged in a big job," he added. "It is to build New Zealand, and we want to make the path through life easier than it has been. We cannot lift our standard of life unless we produce in greater quantities than ever before. Our job is to get things going with a swing."

By control of imports the Government had in effect selected things it was going to take from abroad, and its promise was that the things that had been shut out would be produced in New, Zealand, Mr. Savage said. Unless that were done the standard of life must fall. He expressed the hope j that production would be increased, and gave a pledge that in any increase in production the workers would share. Mi*. Savage spoke on similar lines at two other factories he visited. He said the Government wanted the country to manufacture a good deal more of its needs, because that was the only way of building New Zealand. It would not do only to run farms and buy everything else needed abroad. That was one of the reasons why import control was introduced. BUILDING UP NEW ZEALAND. "As the, trade of New Zealand expands our job is to see to it that your incomes expand, too," he continued. "There is no sentiment in that. Unless the rank and file of the people have incomes something like equal to the value- of their production we are bound to have periods of unemploymerit." The Prime Minister said he was not talking at anyone when he made those remarks, but was meaning them to be heard by employer and employee alike,. The Government was asking for more production and guaranteeing 'that the \ people would be able to buy it. He appealed to the producers to do better than ever before. "Never forget that the Government of your own country begins in the workshop," he said. The Government would get a lot of abuse in days to come, but it had had some in the past, and was not afraid of it. "If you go slow, any Government will tumble before your eyes," Mr. Savage said in making his final address of the day. "The Government is setting out to build New Zealand industry. We are not satisfied just to milk cows, however important they may be. We are asking the people to do more than ever before. We' are askirfg for the best that is in you to fill the gap created by import control."

Similarly, Mr. Savage appealed to the employers. He said that unless firms had some guarantee of security they could not be expected to accept increased risks. His words applied to both those who received wages and those who paid them.