WORK AND ECONOMICS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 132, 7 June 1939, Page 8

WORK AND ECONOMICS

PAYING FOR SHORTER HOURS

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—The closing year of the first century of the history of New Zealand seems an appropriate time to consider how work has affected bur economics. ; , ;-■- When the first company of immigrants came ashore from the good ship Tory they were faced with' an ■ amazing amount of work, a good deal of which had to be done in as short a time as possible. The custom then was for the able-bodied men to work ten hours and even longer per day. Gradually those with capital were able to employ labour; still for-long- hours and a mere pittance in wages. As the work progressed and more settled conditions prevailed the hired workers naturally sought shorter hours of work, and presently, mainly through the agitation and efforts of a worker, tiamed' Parnell, the eight-hour day became the custom. This was embalmed in a descriptive doggerel, as follows:— Eight hours' work, Eight hours' play, Eight hours' sleep, Eight shillings a day. The eight-hour day held right up to the early nineties of the last century, without causing much economic disturbance. Just about, then, and following the maritime strike, which Was the first of such upheavals known in New Zealand, the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, for which the late Edward Tregear was responsible, was placed on the Statute Book, the late William Pember Reeves being Minister of Labour, and the sympathetic Tregear Under-Secretary. The workers thus obtained the right to form unions of industrial workers and collective bargaining was permitted.

The workers soon made use of new privileges, and to cut a long story short they secured 44 hours as the working week, and in most cases there were small increases in wages. This reduction of. the hours of work from 48 to 44 per week together with some increases in wages raised costs and caused some disturbance to the economic structure. 'But this soon passed away, for in the nineties were developed two new large-scale industries— dairying and freezing. The credit for directing attention to the potentials of the dairy industry must be given to a much respected Chinaman, the late Mr. Chew Chong, who v had a factory in Eltham. He exhibited about a ton of butter at theDunedin Exhibition of 1886,- which was run by! Messrs. Joubert and Twopenny. The freezing industry was started in Dunedin, the first shipment going from that place to London.

These two new industries provided work besides export income, and changed the whole feature of our economics. It was not all plain sailing, for

we had an economic crisis in the-early nineties, when banking difficulties were experienced. On the whole the! disturbance caused by the introduction of the 44-hour week was mild and easily overcome. This 44-hour week, which was not universal with the unions, held for over 40 years until the present Labour Government introduced^ its ' policy of "the sky is the limit," restored wages to the pre-depression. level, made unionism compulsory, and reduced the working hours to 40 per week,: and thus caused a major disturbance to■ our economics. This is the main cause of the present depression. Now the function of economics is to somehow bring about a balanced position. How long will it take? Each will answer the question according to his political and economic beliefs. The disturbance is a serious one, for thera is the shortening of the hours of work, and lengthening of the wages, while unionism now covers every class of worker.

When the hours of work were previously reduced the impact of the disturbance caused to our economic life was eased through the development of the dairying and freezing jjndustries. Is there any possibility of such history repeating itself? What new largescale export industries can we start? There appears to be none offering, but the Government appears, to place its faith in the expansion of the existing secondary industries, and is going to the trouble and expense of instituting adult apprenticeships—which may prove a futile task.

As far as can be seen there is no potential large-scale industry looming over the horizon, but what is Worse is that the two industries —dairying and freezing—are threatened, not with extinction, but restriction of expansion. ■Mutton and lamb are already restricted, and we are told that the country will not know what to do this year -with about 500,000 sheep. Restriction in the dairying industry is expected, at least it is expected in Australia, and if applied to the Commonwealth will be applied to New Zealand. What is going to be the effect of this? If we cannot start new export industries, and our existing export industries are denied the power of expansion, there must be an .economic disturbance. Presently the onus will be on us of finding new products for our old markets, or new markets for our old products, a difficult matter in either case.

There must be a "drastic change in. our economic life, however distasteful it may be. That change will take.some time, because the Government •is placing very serious obstacles in the way, but the change must come, for economics will not tolerate an unbalanced position. Our economic troubles and worries began months ago, but our experience so far has5 been mild compared with what is ahead of us. The difficulty is likely to last longer, because the Government has kicked over the traces of orthodox finance and economics. We are in economic trouble in the closing days of the first century of New Zealand's history, either through ignorance or disregard of economics by our Labour Government.—l am, etc., . H. J. KEARNEY, j