N.R.A. CODE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 88, 12 March 1935, Page 2

N.R.A. CODE.

OPERATION IN AMERICA. TRADE COMA’IISSIONER’S COAIAIENT. “System without method, order without arrangement, battle without strategy—in short planned economy without plans.” This was the description applied to the N.11.A. code by a friend of his who had occupied the position of an economic adviser under President Roosevelt’s Administration, stated Air J. AV. Collins, trade commissioner for New Zealand in Canada and the United States, during an interesting address yesterday to the Palmerston North Rotary Club. He hintself expressed the opinion, however, that the N.11.A. scheme, although moving too swiftly, had achieved some very definite resuits. Air AV. S. Carter presided over a large attendance. The opinions of the economic adviser with whom he was acquainted, said Air Collins, were expressed in a recent letter he had received. This United States citizen had no time for the N.R.A. code, maintaining that the Government’s power and credit lrad been mobilised to perpetuate the debt system, that the scheme was contradictory in different phases of its operation and that industrialists were implored on one day to raise prices, and the next to reduce' them. Alillions were paid to plough in corn and not raise pigs, while big fertiliser works operated to stimulate the sowing of more corn and growing of more pigs. “Under the N.R.A.,” commented Air Collins, “America is trying to accomplish in two months what has taken New Zealand 20 or 30 years. The States have a large cosmopolitan and coloured population, and require a huge staff to carry out the laws a.nd regulations. The scheme is operating too quickly, and it will take years to_ accomplish what is sought. It has wiped out many of the abuses and sweated labour conditions in the large cities. Boys and girls were working 60 hours a week for less than one dollar. Such conditions were rampant until President Roosevelt fixed a minimum wage and restricted working hours to 40, or less, a week.” VISITS TO ROTARY CLUBS.

Proceeding, Mr Collins stated that his headquarters were at Toronto and his was the first appointment of its nature to be made by the Government of New Zealand. He was at present on three months’ leave and would be returning to Canada by the Aorangi, leaving on April 2. Six months after taking up his position in Canada, said Mr Collins, he joined the Rotary Club at Toronto, one. of the largest of its kind in the British Empire. There were 411 classifications, and the fellowship committee alone consisted of 60 members. Not only was he appointed to act in Canada, but in the United States as well, but now the Government had granted him assistance and appointed Mr Firth to take charge of the Californian district, or the West Coast of America. The appointment had been received with great favour. Mr Collins said he had attended Rotary gatherings all over Canada and the United States. He had spoken at Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa, Hamilton, Halifax, Boston (“the most British-minded city in the United States”), , Detroit, Buffalo, New York,- Seattle, and San Francisco.

The speaker was accorded a vote of on the motion of Mr M. N. Wallace.

\ lsitors welcomed were Messrs Leopold (Frankfurt, Germany), L. and yL Dickson (Christchurch), VH. Pearce (Wellington), H. B. Free, T. T. Jamef° n - D. Sheperton, Lindsay and Rees (Palmerston North).