King Country Chronicle Saturday, December 1, 1923. THE WAGES QUESTION.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XVIII, Issue 1895, 1 December 1923, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Saturday, December 1, 1923. THE WAGES QUESTION.

Some very pregnant remarks were made by the chairman of the New Zealand Employers’ Association when dealing with the annual report of that body at the conference held in Wellington this week. These affect the future of the worker as much as the employer, and show that high wages are mainly responsible for the high cost of living. At the present time the Dominion is receiving high prices for its primary products, and comparatively speaking, money is plentiful in the country, but there is no certainty that these prices . will be maintained. For this reason it is time that the country seriously considered the necessity of a proper adjustment of wages. If the Dominion was self-contained and quite independent of other countries in the matter of trade, the wages problem would not be such a serious matter. This country, however, is not so independent, the result being that outside primary products, secondary industries account for only 5 per cent of the total, the rest being the result of the work of the man on the land. Almost the whole of our raw material is beingsent away to be manufactured in other countries. Although this is mainly an agricultural country, it is essential that secondary industries must have some consideration in the development of the Dominion, but at , present the high cost of production is stifling these. With a very few exceptions, the average cost of raw materials is nearly down to pre-war prices, but the manufactured article has dropped to a very small extent. This goes to prove that the cost of manufacturing and handling is keeping up the cost, of goods in this country. During the war period the cost of living in Britain stood at 213 per cent higher than in 1914, but this has now fallen to 65 per cent. In New Zealand the cost of living rose to 78 per cent above the 1914 standard, and has now fallen to 42 per cent. A comparison of these figures shows that the downward cost of living has been much greater in Britain than New Zealand.

Even now it has to be recognised that many workers have a problem to face in making ends meet, but high wages are not the solution of the problem. It is like a dog chasing its tail —there is no finality. If wages are on a high level, so must the cost of living be also. The times are now prosperous in the Dominion, but New Zealand has been singularly blessed during the last ten years, inasmuch as ‘ the prices for our primary products have been good. There have been several set-backs from time to time, but not to the same extent as other parts of the world have experienced. It has to be recognised, however, that other countries are once more producing commodities which New Zealand had very largely a monopoly of, and there is going to be very keen competition in this direction, the result being that in some lines at least we will have to expect lower prices for our exports. To meet this successfully, our cost of production will have to be reduced if the Dominion is to compete successfully. All the legislation in the world cannot control the world’s markets, and this is a fact that many people lose sight of.