AN ECONOMIC REMEDY

Hokitika Guardian, 6 April 1927, Page 4

AN ECONOMIC REMEDY

FOR INDUSTRIAL TROUBLES. 41! RITE ATIOX ( HURT CHALLENGED. “One of the most important problems we have to solve as a Parliament is whether the Arbitration Court is h, noth ial. or whether it is shackling industry ii such a way as to l.e a menace to our future.” ’lll's is one of the statements contained in a letter sent receiitlv to the Prime Minister hv Mr David Jones, M.P., chairman of the New Zealand ...cat Producers’ Hoard. Proceeding on this topic, Mr Jones says: “The Arbitration Act was passed to stop sweating and strikes- two very landa' lo objects. The Court was ostab* lished and given wide power-;; pnve; grows by what it feeds on. and tim Court went right away from the above objects—it regulated industry; rest.netion.s, preferences, and new methods it brings into industries, until to-day il is farcical to call it an Arbitration

Court—it is purely State regulation of wages, conditions, etc. ; it has the power, and it claims to have wisdom enough to lay down regulations governing even to minute details manufacturing production and labour; it in-

sists on many awards being carried out in one establishment, with the eon.sequent confusion, and added expenses; with few exceptions it does not take into consideration either the quantity or the quality of the services rendered, nor the effect upon the price of product. Against tin- verdict there is no appeal. DRIFT TO THE TOWNS. "It. may be argued that bonuses or payment by results would be a retrograde movement, but as I have already pointed out, our primary industries have no option—they can only be paid bv results, and they are carrying the load to-day. Land settlement is being urged and the drift to the towns deplored ; the Minister for Lands is prepared to give land away, but the intelligent farmer to-day is debating whether it is fair to remain in the country with his wife and family when artificial conditions are built up in the towns by legislation. Statistics show that he is deciding against the country, and that spells disaster to the Dominion in the long run. " It is manifest that this question is agitating the Dominion to-day as never before, and the problem, whether our present system is strengthening or strangling New Zealand is a vital one. We have to meet fierce world competition. and no successful country attempts to shackle its industrial life as we do.

LEARN FROM, AMERICA. "The strongest opponent of State regulation is the American workman, who says definitely that the only wav

to increase wages is to increase output. and the result of this policy lias made him the highest paid worker in the world : from September. 1924. to October, 1925, employment in American manufacturing industries increased 6.4 per cent—wages 12.6 per cent, and production 24.8 per cent. The Austin Motor Company, England, adopted similar conditions, and in three years secured this remarkable result:—lncrease in turnover, 209 per rent; increase (average) in workers’ output efficiency, 73 per cent: increase in individual earnings, 103 per cent; increase in profits. 93 per cent ; decrease in cost to purchasers due to lowered list prices and added equipment. 62 per cent.

“Under the old system they say they ‘ would not sell a dozen cars a year.’ Under result payment basis, • Wo are to-day turning out 25.000 cars a year.’ A PRACTICAL SUGGESTION. “Such instances could be multiplied if necessary. Other nations are conquering the world and us industrially, and sve are crying over the result.