DOMINION’S PROBLEMS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 29, 5 January 1931, Page 8

DOMINION’S PROBLEMS

DUTY OF PARTIES. MR HOLLAND’S MESSAGE. “I join in voicing the universal wish for happiness and prosperity in the coming year, fully realising that tho problem before all of us is now to translate the human element of the message into line with the experiences of our every day lives, for after all real happiness is that which finds its expression not in the lives of a privileged section, but in the homes of the people as a whole,” said Mr H. E. Holland, Leader of the Labour Party, in his New Year message. “The sum total of prosperity is a condition which prevails when the people in the mass are lifter above the haunting fear of want. How to bring that about is a real social problem—how to provide every adult member of the community with the opportunity to earn the means of purchasing a sufficiency of the necessaries of life for his wife and family and himself, and how to make adequate provision for those whom accident, and sickness will prevent from winning a living by their own labour.

“There is no shortage of the necessaries of life in this most richly productive country; there never lias been such a shortage. There has been, and there is, a large-scale failure to bring the labouring power of willing men who are workless into application with Nature’s waiting resources, and because of this failure we have been, and are now, confronted with a monstrous paradox : YVomen and children enduring poverty, want and hunger in a land in which a superabundance of food and clothing and other human requirements are produced in a country with immense areas lying idle, with millions of pounds’ worth of national and local public works waiting to be done, with a multitude of primary and secondary industries struggling to maintain a precarious existence and awaiting encouragement and assistance.

“Wo have the equally monstrous paradox of thousands of unemployed men clamouring for the right to work, which means the right to live. “What is the remedy? The duty of all parties is to provide an effective answer to the question. Especially is it the duty of the Government for the time being. Certain of our primary industries are suffering at the present time because what appear to be deflation processes are operating in other lands as well as in our own, but as I see it the position is not nearly so dismal as some have the tendency to present it. New Zealand, like Australia, is a country of rapid recoveries from passing' economic depressions, and when the present position in relation to our export values is viewed in comparison with the averages of past years the need for hopelessness and pessimism d ls_ appears. “At the same time we all realise the immediate difficulties with which the primary producers are faced, and it seems to me that the greatest of these so far as the bona fide working farmer is concerned is the problem of Ins interest and liabilities. In times of economic stress, when cheaper credits are his outstanding need, the money market has a liabit of tightening against the primary producer in common with the rest ol the community. .. “On those who hold power the obligation rests to provide a better organisation of credit than that which now exists, and such an organisation can only effectively take place under public control. . . - “No policy of wage reductions could help New Zealand at this juncture. It certainly could not help tire working farmer, whose wages bill is frequently a small circumstance as compared with his interest bill. Widespread .wage reduction would have for its main effect a lowering of the living standard of the people as a whole (and that would be disastrous),' a curtailment of purchasing power, and consequently severe depreciation of the local market in which the farmer sells liis proSuch a policy would accentuate the period of economic depression and would tend to precipitate the very crisis wo wish to avoid. It will, moreover, be likely to affect the volume of our exports, for since exports are paid for by imports it follows, that our capacity to export is conditioned by our capacity to consume the imports we receive in turn. “Whatever party governs during the coming year, it can only succeed provided its legislative enactments are framed and its administrative activities shaped in such a way as to make for stability for those who render social service to the Dominion. Close attention will have to be devoted to the problems surrounding the operations of the agricultural and pastoral primary producers, also to the problems of those who are engaged in the output of coal, timber and other equally important primary products. “State aiding and encouragement must of necessity be forthcoming in the case of these and also the secondary industries. No willing worker should be compelled to remain idle. If the right to work is denied it follows that unemployment sustenance must be forthcoming, but the payment of wages for useful work done is emphatically more satisfactory to the worker and the community than sustenance in lieu of work. “How, then, can employment be provided? By selecting thousands of the most suitable men from the ranks of the unemployed and setting them to work on roading, clearing and preparing for settlement lands that are now unoccupied and unworked; by the employment of other men on public works that are necessary, and consequently of economic value to the people of New Zealand; by building and developing both primary and secondary industries; by shortening the hours of labour, particularly in those industries into which labour-saving machinery has been extensively introduced; by a serious endeavour to stabilise the purchasing power; and by a courageous determination to maintain the living standard of the people at the highest possible level. “May the coming of the New Year bring a fuller recognition of the identity of interests of all who give service in the useful occupations of the country. May it bring such a change of economic conditions that the . social idea will ultimately find its application in the processes of distribution, equally with the processes of production. May the New Year bring happiness and prosperity for all, with the labour of hand and brain reaping its true reward.”