The Hawera Star. THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 1930. “REGARDLESS OF THE FINANCIAL SITUATION.”

Hawera Star, Volume L, 28 August 1930, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 1930. “REGARDLESS OF THE FINANCIAL SITUATION.”

Delivered every evening .by 6 o’olook in Hawera, Manaia, Kaupikonui, Otakeho, Oeo, Pihama, Opunake, Normanby. Okaiawa Eltham, Ngaere, Mangatoki, Kaponga. Awatuna, Te Kiri, Mahoe, Lowgarth, Manutahi, Kakaramea, Alton, Hurleyville Patea. Whenuaknra, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara. Ohangai, Meremere, Fraser Road, and Ararata.

When we said the other day. that it was one thing for the Australian State Premiers to come to a working agreement with Sir Otto Niemeyor and quite another for them to return to their constituents with a demand for economy and sacrifice, we were anticipating what has actually come to pass in certain quarters. A cable message published yesterday stated that, the industrial and political wings of the New South Wales Labour Movement Conference decided to recommend the Federal Labour members of Parliament that “the financial agreement reached by the Premiers should be repudiated and that any member who refused to obey should be expelled as an enemy of the working classes.” For sheer selfish stupidity one would imagine that to be an exaggerated example, but the same message showed that Australian Labour can go even further in exposing its utter unsuitability to have any say in the government of the country. This Labour conference recommended, that the Government ‘ ‘ should cancel the war debts”; should “refuse to pay interest on overseas loans for a period of five years”; should “mobilise credit to provide work and sustenance for unemployment”; and that “ award rates of pay should be maintained regardless of the financial situation.” These recommendations, solemnly arrived at by what purports to be the intelligensia of the trade union movement in New South Wales, are to be submitted to Labour organisations throughout Australia for ratification. The trouble with the Australian trade unionist is that he has achieved a position of power in the land by sheer brute force, exerted through the trade union machine, and (he mistakenly believes that he has arrived at his present position by the exercise of his intellect. Anyone with a glimmering of commensense can see that the conference which arrived at the above decisions had not grasped the first principles of “what is wrong with Australia.” There is no need to examine the worthlessness of the decisions made; it is only too evident. Mr Fenton, Acting-Federal Prime Minister, has since said that the above resolutions should not be taken too seriously as they emanated from a coterie of irresponsibles. Irresponsible they certainly are, recognising no responsibility to anyone and caring nothing for the State or for any class other than their own, but it sad fact that irresponsibility of that sort has had a large share in placing Australia where she is to-day. Labour has ever demanded the “ maintenanace of award rates of pay irrespective of financial conditions,” and the politicians, realising who put them into Parliament and what they must do to stay there, have listened and have devised all sorts of economically unsound methods of meeting that, demand. When mounting costs of production threatened to put a stoppage to the coal industry, the owners asked the men to accept lower wages so that the industry might be carried on. The men would not listen and the owners declared they w r ould not continue to operate the mines at a loss. Bather than have thousands thrown out of work, the Government promised to make up the difference by paying a bounty on coal—w’hich was already being produced at a figure too high to compete with coal produced overseas and transported thousands of miles. Other industries have been protected by high tariffs or assisted by a Statepaid bounty, all in order that men might be kept in employment, at high wages—wages assessed, not upon the, the worth of the labour to industry, but based on a cost of living and a. standard of comfort out of all proportion to real earning power. Now Australia is faced with a mighty bill which she cannot pay. It is being said on every hand that Australia is in for a bad time, but just how bad few people have realised. It appears practically certain that the artificial wage standard must be broken down before Australia can begin to get upon her feet, financially. No Government has been courageous enough to tell Labour that it can be paid only what it earns; instead raids have been made upon the nest of the goose which , lays the golden egg—the Treasury. | The goose has no more eggs and its j future lies in the hands of overseas financiers who will not hesitate to toll

t Labour tho homo-truths that tho politicians darnel not utter. State bounties .must go when there is no State money J pay them. That means that some industries will fail, men will be thrown out of employment, and the labour mar- , ket will become flooded with cheap

labour—eventually, for the unions will oppose to the utmost any reduction of the wage standard. With cheap labour available, and the cost of living reduced, Australia will then, and then only, be able to talk with sincerity about recouping herself. Everybody has been telling her for years that ‘ ‘ she must get her costs of production down,” but nobody has told her how she can do it—without incurring the utmost displeasure of trades unionism. If the present slump solves that problem once and for ever, it will prove, in the long run, a blessing in disguise to the Commonwealth, though doubtless the country and some sections of the people will first suffer long and bitterly.