Greymouth Evening Star. SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 1949. Levelling Down

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 March 1949, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 1949. Levelling Down

IT is obvious from recent utterances of ■ Ministers of the Crown that the Gov-1 ernment is alarmed at the effect that increases in wages will have on the economic stability of the country, unless there is a commensurate increase in production. But a Government that long preached the delights of leisure and the folly of honest toil can have little cause for complaint if the rank and file of its followers demand that it should honour its specious promises. When the Socialists came to power they deliberately encouraged a spending spree beyond New Zealand’s productive capacity to accommodate. That was the start of our inflationary troubles —the start of the steady decline in the purchasing power of the pound note. In recent years the Minister of Finance, Mr Nash, has, of course, attempted to comply with many of the sound rules of orthodox finance. But occasionally he has allowed himself to be side-tracked into the devious by-ways of Socialist economics. Unfortunately, these diversions from orthodoxy have been serious enough to start Ihe country on the high road to economic disaster.. Mr Nash has sacrificed principles to the demands of party. The reason for this is, of course, that Mr Nash is so wedded to the idea of power that any price is good enough to pay so long as he retains if.

The Minister only last week provided an example of his ability to suit his policy to the occasion. Speaking to the Auckland Trades Council, he said that he wanted to get more money for the labourer and improve the position of those on lower incomes. Earlier, in a speech Io the Auckland Creditmen’s Club, he admitted that the margins between the pay of unskilled and skilled labour had got out of traditional relationship with one another —in other words, the incentive for a man to train himself for a higher class of work has largely disappeared. Almost in the same breath Mr Nash stressed the need for greater production and the devising of incentive methods in order to achieve that aim. So ,Mr Nash hopes to obtain increased production, to raise the income of the unskilled and at the same time admits that the margin for skill has dwindled. If all this makes sense to Mr Nash, then obviously he is indeed a very remarkable man—remarkable for the creation of illusions.

Nothing that has occurred in recent times has been more damaging to the Government’s case than Mr Nash’s recent utterances. His emphasis on the inflationary dangers of a wages increase is in itself an admission that the Government’s policy has brought the strain on the country’s economy to breaking point. His talk now of providing incentives has a hollow sound to the ears of the masses long deluded by the past promises of Government leaders.

Incentive and reasonable competition are the two most powerful factors in human progress. To hold otherwise is to deny the weaknesses of human nature. The Government, by its levelling-down process and by its oppressive taxation of professional and skilled workers, coupled with the whittling away of the margins for skill, has destroyed the basis of progress. The Socialists stand indicted on the charge of heading for disaster the very people whom they professed to help. When he can no longer afford to meet to the full the high cost of living resulting from the Government’s policy, the consumer will stop buying, and that will be the beginning of a depression. Paper rewards for work are less important than the quality and quantity of things that that paper will buy.