PRICE EXPLOITATION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 177, 27 June 1936, Page 6

PRICE EXPLOITATION

CHECK BY GOVERNMENT. PREMIER’S OBSERVATIONS. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, June 26. Emphasising the- Government is determination to ensure that higher standards of living will not encourage exploitation in way of high prices, the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. M. JSavage) in an interview to-day, defined the Government’s approach to this question. “We want the benefits ot the combined efforts of the people of this country to be distributed equitably among them,” lie declared. Mr Savage sa.id there was a lot of superficial thinking done about thin. “The business world will have to realise that where one man can raise his price above what is legitimate, lie can only do it at the expense of others in that business or in other lines of business and at the expense of the community generally,” he stated. “Taken over all, prices cannot possibly rise higher than the aggregate of buying power. If the buying power of New Zealand, for argument's sake, aggregates £100,000,000, p~ces in the aggregate of goods and services cannot possibly rise higher than that figure because there will be nothing on which to base the price. This is a matter upon which we should get the assistance ot everyone in the business world. It is to their interest. We want to see them live. We want to build New Zealand and see that they get a fair share ol what is going on all the time. “A point to be emphasised,” continued Mr Savage, “is that the philosophy of every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost means disaster ahead. There is no doubt about it. We do not suggest that the cost of production should be increased without any recompense to those who have to pay the added cost in the form of wages, but our objective is to bring about a more equitable distribution of this country’s production. That is the reason for any attempt at all to regulate prices and conditions. By conditions, I mean hours of labour and that sort of thing.” , . . Air Savage said that the machine had displaced labour, and that brought them to a point where it was necessary to adopt a policy of shortening hours and raising wages. CHEAP OVERSEAS LABOUR.

“We must always be in a position to protect the people of this country—the employers as well as the employed —against goods and services coming from abroad that are produced by cheap labour,” said Air Savage, “ic is no good trying to build a standard of living in New Zealand if it is going to be undermined by the products of cheap labour from overseas. The reason for the Government’s plan is simply to be able to protect industry in New Zealand. We say on the one band that New Zealand must do more than confine itself to primary production. We must go in l‘or secondary industries in certain cases. We want the benefit of the combined efforts of the people of New Zealand to be equitably distributed among them in order to protect our efforts from invasion from abroad of goods and services that are tlie result of cheap labour. It the past we have confined ourselves to Customs tariffs. These were meant to be protective, but where they were not protective they were not justified. Although some thought it was a legitimate way of raising revenue, we never did think so. It was a means, the main purpose of which was to be protective. We say that object is all right. We have to protect our higher standaid of living against invasion from abroad, but that protection is not tlie only way and that is why we say we should have agreements with the outside world, beginning with the British Commonwealth and extending ultimately to the outside world. The agreements must be based on what is economic for both parties to tlie agreement. “We cannot produce everything in New Zealand. We must take so much from abroad and pay for it with the surplus of that which we can produce in New Zealand. The object of the Minister of Alarketing in going abroad,” continued Air Savage, “will be to open up negotiations along these lines. We are warned against the difficulties. We know there are difficulties all along the line, but it is not too much to ask that British people, whether they happen to be located in New Zealand or in Britain, should be prepared at least to deal with one another and to have an equal exchange of goods and services and generally to be able to give preference to British production right through tlie British Commonweal tli.” “The trade agreement is meant to be an alternative to the present tariff wall. We do not want the manufacturers to think we are going to pull down the tariff wall without having something more substantial to take its place. We say as dogmatically as possible that New Zealand standards must !be protected, either by the.old method of a tariff wall or by the. new ideals of Labour trade agreements—that is. taking what wc want from abroad consciously and deliberately.”