COSTS AND PRICES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 229, 26 August 1940, Page 8

COSTS AND PRICES

■ VITAL CONFERENCE. OF ALL INTERESTS. (By Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, . Aug. 26. A conference of considerable importance to all sections of the community is to be held at an early date to consider the possibility of stabilising costs, wages and prices in New Zealand. The announcement was made to-day by the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. P. Fraser). The proposed conference is the outcome of a suggestion made bv tho Prime Minister to a deputation from tho Farmers’ Union which discussed with him last week the effect on the farming industry of tho Arbitration Court’s general order granting a 5 per cent increase in award wages. It was then suggested by Mr Fraser that it would be advisable if a conference of interested parties, including representatives of the Government, the Farmers’ Union, the Federation of Labour, and the Manufacturers’ Federation, could be held to survey the general economic position of the country under war conditions with a view to stabilising costs, wages and prices, and to discuss the expansion of production generally. The Prime Minister said that already the Farmers’ Union and the Federation of Labour had expressed their willingness to attend such a conference, and it would, therefore, bo held as soon as possible—either at the end of the present week or the beginning of next week.