“LABOUR’S UTOPIA!"

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21944, 12 February 1946, Page 2

“LABOUR’S UTOPIA!"

Sir, —Recognising ihe growing resentment at the inconvenience caused to many sections of the community by the operation of the 40-hour week, plus the stupidity of trying to stabilise the economy of a Dominion dependent upon its productivity, on a shortened week of labour, the acting Prime Minister took the plunge at the opening of the Raglan by-election of risking the correction of Labour union leaders by an outburst of language that is bound to receive wide comment within and without Labour circles. It looks, as the old proverb says, that “a little knowledge is the beginning of wisdom.” Your comment in Saturday’s issue was timely and right to the point. Auckland papers give a fuller statement of Mr. Nash’s outburst. ‘‘We must produce to the limit every type of product, whether it be from the farm, the factory or the mine. We must have more production,” he said. It was left at that —fuller explanation was unnecessary. Realising he was addressing an audience largely composed of miners, he praised the miners’ figures of production for 10-13, but regretted the drop in production since! The belief that New Zealand can pay its war commitments, maintain its own economy and standard of living, and assist the people of Britain in their dire shortage of essential food supplies on a policy pushed into operation by the trades union leaders of a 40-hour week for all workers is being exploded with a resounding bang. At a time when production is the prime need of this Dominion we cannot secure enough coal, clothing, butter.

and innumerable other necessities, nor is there any prospect of improvement. Imports are restricted so that factory hands may be fully employed, yet in every industry there is a shortage of labour and shortened hours of production, and no policy of immigration to permit the shortages being remedied. This ideal of the labour unions is holding to ransom the whole community. Houses are most urgently needed, but builders and all essential labourers must not work beyond 40 hours to relieve this acute need. Timber and all file 101 smaller parts of the house cannot be produced or procured, and so the silly cycle goes on. People who should be, and in many cases are prepared to be engaged in production of some sort are compelled into idleness. The Labour Utopia of a 40-hour week for workers of New Zealand will have repercussions that its dreamers have not dreamt of. Messrs. Nash, Semple and Jordan are trying to waken them out of their dream. Hence Mr. Nash,

as acting Prime Minister, says: • "You cannot close down vital industries to have a five-day week” (with particular emphasis on the baking industry). It remains to be seen whether Mr. Nash, the Government, or the labour union leaders will decide “the vital industries.” HOUSE I-lUNTER.

Sir, —In 1036 I listened to the late Mr. Tim Armstrong introduce the first 40-hour bill. He said it could not be justified except on the ground of spreading employment, and he was supported by other Ministers. If it were an unemployment relief measure, how can it be justified when it, is impossible to get labour for hospitals, when the country is crying out for houses, when other essential industries are starved for labour, and when Britain is desnernte for food and raw materials? Last session I heard some Ministers say it was only fair that the 40-hour five-day week should be enjoyed by all. Now Mr. Nash says we are living in a fool's paradise if we imagine we can all have a 40-hour, five-day week and that we should be able to have bread on seven, do vs a week. He told the Huntly miners we have io produce to the limit even if we have to work a 100-hour week. On ton of ibis Mr. Semple says we must work harder and produce more if our standard of living and social security are not to collapse under

T think most people realise something has gone wrong with Labour's programme and it is time the Ministers told us the plain truth about things. Have we gone too far and too fast? Is our standard of living too high and our social security too costly to maintain on n 40-hour week? Anyone can see we can't produce more if we work less, and we all know we can’t run a Rolls Royce on a Ford income. Mr. Nash says our national income is not enough even io let us import vacuum cleaners, which used in cost £5. Things seem a hit topsy-turvy in the paradise of the Pacific —even our Socialist Ministers are now telling us the same things they used to laugh at the Opposition for saving. Perhaps the Opposition was right, after all and we may have to look lo them to get us out of the mess. OLD T.TBERAL.