NEW INDUSTRIES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 16, 30 December 1932, Page 7

NEW INDUSTRIES

OR MORE FARMING? UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM ECONOMIST’S DISCUSSION Auckland, Dec. 29. '<The problem that has to be solved, if unemployment is to be cured, is the problem of absorbing workers from the old-established, depressed industries into new industries and new branches of industry, where it is at yet impossible to forecast demand,” said Dr. A, G. B. Fisher, Professor of Economics at Otago University, when speaking at tho W.E.A. Summer School at Pacrata yesterday on “Economic Problems of Increasing Prosperity.” Dr. Fisher remarked that agriculture was the most depressed industry in the world, yet political leaders in every country were crying “back to the land.” He considered that there was infinitely more possibility of permanently absorbing workers by creating new industries, supplying either new wants or the extension of what at present we call luxuries. Adjustment of that nature was, of course, extremely difficult, but most important.

RAPID ADVANCE OF SCIENCE.'

Dr. Fisher listed the factors which would govern this adjustment of capital and labour—the general level of wealth, the rate the improvements were earriel through, whether commodities were already well supplied, and the rate of population growth. Such changes would be harder with a stationary population. Tho really important point was that new inventions were constantly appearing, and making for more efficient production. The scientific advance of to-day and for the last 30 years was much greater than at any time in the 19th century. A substantial proportion of the population, greater than ever before, was devoting its whole time to finding ways and means of increasing production of all goods by invention and research. ALTERATIONS IN DEMAND. The professor pointed out that even if there were I a substantial redistribution or levelling of wealth and existing incomes, as envisaged by some reformers, a problem of adjustment would still remain, as the demand for certain goods would alter. The new rich would spend their new money in a way which could not be forecasted by merchants and manufacturers, and at the same time factories producing goods at present bought, would have to close down. “Unless the problems of these readjustments of capital and labour are maed,” concluded Dr. Fisher, “recovery at a reasonable rate is impossible. ’ ’