DISTRIBUTION PROBLEM.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 89, 14 March 1934, Page 12

DISTRIBUTION PROBLEM.

THE NATIONAL INCOME. Per Press Association. DUNEDIN, March 13. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr M. J. Savage) addressed a large audience in the Town Hall to-night. Mr W. J. Morland, chairman of the Labour representation committee, presided. Mr Savage, who was accorded a very enthusiastic reception, said the main problem facing the Dominion today was one of distribution of the national income. It was useless to go on producing more unless the increase in production were made available to the people. Improvements in machinery and scientific processes were responsible for the vast increases in production without a corresponding increase in the employment ot manual labour, and unless the benefits of machinery and science were equitably distributed among the rank and file of the people who were responsible for production, recurring periods of depression were inevitable. ,A way out of tho present difficulty was complete public control of the monetary system, which should bo organised as a national service, having for its object the supply of sufficient credit and currency to enable the people to exchange services with each other. That was not the object of the present banking system, although the existing banking machinery might easily be made to serve the purpose. Opponents of Labour frequently asked where the money was to come from to guarantee prices for goods and services, and they conveniently overlooked the fact that since 1922, when the first wage and salary reductions were made, wholesale destruction of the medium of exchange was carried out by' Acts of Parliament. Farmers and others were called upon from time to time to provide goods for export in order to meet the Dominion’s commitments overseas, and they were entitled to expect guaranteed prices sufficient to enable them to enjoy a standard of living in keeping with the productivity of New Zealand industries. Such guaranteed prices could be maintained only by the payment of wages and salaries in equitable relationship with the aggregate prices to be paid. Without a guaranteed purchasing power in the form of wages and salaries guaranteed prices for products could not be sustained. Under the present conditions producers were at the mercy of the speculators, and stability of trade and industry was impossible. At the conclusion of his' address the speaker was accorded a unanimous vote of thanks and confidence amid applause.