BONUS REDUCTION

Evening Star, Issue 17954, 27 April 1922, Page 11

BONUS REDUCTION

THE EMPLOYERS’ ARfiBBEIT.

PRIMARY INDUSTRIES IMPERILLED

WORKERS’ SHARE OF SACRIFICE. TEE ROAD TO PROSPERITY. Mr T. 0. Bishop, tho employers’ representative, marshalled his arguments before the Arbitration Court at Wellington jes-torda-y to show tho necessity for immediate and radical reduction of tho bonus. Mr Bishop sninmamcd his arguments as follows:

1. There is undoubtedly most urgent need to-day for a readjustment of wages and prices. Tho need is not restricted to Now Zealand, but is world-wide, and wo cannot Wind ourselves to tho experience oi other countries. Apart from tho effect wo must feel from the world situation, the position of our primary industries to-day is such as to call for immediate remedy, and the reaction upon our secondary industries has already become most serious 2. It has been abundantly proved t).at wo can no longer adjust wages to ibo cast of living, regardless of tho economic situation, and Parliament has recognised this fact by making it mandatory that in anv adjustment of wages economic and financial conditions shall bo given duo consideration. 3. Tho worker is not being, asked to hoar an undue share of the sacrifice. Tho employers have been losing for the lastyear, and are losing to-day, and, are pro pared to continue to lose by passing on to tho public the benefit of wage reductions if -by so doing they are re-establishing their” business and increasing the volume of their trade.

4. The effect of an. adequate wage reduction will he increased employment, an increase in tho total wages bill, and therefore of the purchasing power in circulation. Tho effect of an inadequate reduction will bo a prolongation of the period of half-time employment, a continuation of the stagnation of’ all development work, and a maintenance of higlupnces. 5. Ultimately the situation will bring its own cure. Competition from foreign countries will force down the prices of manufactured goods. The prices of our primary products must fall lower than they are to-day, and the result will be unemployment to such an extent that tho average wages of the community will bo reduced, and tho whole arbitration system will fall. Is it not better and wiser to face the situation boldly to-day, undergo an operation, and suffer tho initial pain, followed by n. speedy recovery, rather than wait for tho sickness to develop still further, and then suffer a very long drawn-out convalescence? 6. Now Zealand workers aro tho best off in the world to-day, and by making a brief sacrifice they can maintain that position, Is the court going to, call upon them to face tho situation, or Is it going to permit them to drift into tho conditions prevailing in other countries? What is tho position in Australia to-day? The copper mines aro idle in nearly all Tho States. The. Broken Hill mines aro practically all idle,* and tho iron and steel works at Lithgow and Newcastle are closed down. 7. I wish also to emphasise, this point more strongly. If tho court makes a substantial general order it bits everyone alike at tho same moment and produces a maximum benefit in return ; but if tho court makes a quit® inadequate general order the effect will bo that the workers in some trades will ho fully employed and wiil enjoy a continuance, of high wages, wi.ile tho'workers in other trades will n'yivo high nominal wages, but small actual wages, because they will have only parttime employment. ‘The difficulties of the poorly-paid’ man will bo aggravated, because he. will have to pay high prices for tho products of his Letter-paid follnwworker. To put a concrete case: The workers in tho iron trade will continue to work half-time, aa they aro doing to-day. Their cost of living will bo kept up, because in tho woollen trade, owing io the absence of competition, prices and wages have not been reduced.

8. There are two ways in which tho present situation may ho faced, and only two. One is to ignore all tho necessities of tho case and tho lessons that others have learned by bitter experience, and to endeavor to maintain a false standard of wages and prices, and as a. result to suffer creeping paralysis of nil our industries; and tho other is to grasp our nettle, to loin hands in tho necessary initial sacrifice, and so got back io a sound economical basis in our businesses and hasten the return of prosperity, Tho question for this court to decide is which of the two courses wo are going to adopt. Evidence is being taken.