THE FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 144, 20 May 1941, Page 4

THE FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY.

The statements made by the Leader of the Opposition on the footwear industrial plan must be disturbing to the community. The Act provides that a plan shall not be brought into force unless the material proposals in it have been approved by a majority of the persons engaged as principals in the industry, ou by persons employing a majority of the workers engaged in such industry. Mr Holland has clearly shown that of 73 employers, only 29 (or 39y per cent, of the total) endorsed the plan. Definitely there was no majority here as the Minister claimed. But on an employee basis the 29 employers have 2209 workers, or 50f per cent, of the total, and the Minister thus claims that the industry gave an affirmative answer;. He has been reinforced in his arguments by the legal advice of the SolicitorGeneral—that the plan has been carried in accordance with the Act. That must be freely admitted, but it is the construction of the Act itself that enables this decision to be given, and to say that the extremely bare number of employers on an employee basis who favoured the plan indicates the industry’s acceptance of it is palpably absurd. The licensing of the industry will be maintained so that no fresh enterprise will be allowed; a committee will be formed giving the Government the right of' interference in the industry’s affairs, and the various regulations customary in such cases will be framed and passed into law. All this is done in accordance with the wording of the Act. but not by the industry’s proper decision, because only 39J per cent, of the employing firms voted in favour of the proposal. So the scheme of socialisation proceeds, and in this case (lie small footwear manufacturer is the one who will suffer. It is another glaring example of how people’s freedom to produce to the fullest extent is being retarded.