SHORTER HOURS

Northern Advocate, 21 March 1931, Page 2

SHORTER HOURS

MR ATMORE’S SUPPORT

(From Oin' Parliamentary Special.) WELLINGTON, Friday.

In an outspoken address on the see- | ond reading of the Finance Bill, in the House of Representatives yesterday, the Hon. H. Atmore, Minister of Education, strongly advocated the shortening of the hours of labour as a limans of overcoming unemployment. His remarks mainly were of an academic nature, and interpolated with long quotations from economic authorities, but he used very plain words when referring to the hours of work. [ “The world generally,” he- declared, “must, face a shortening of the 'hours of labour—that must be the next jstep. 1 know there will be arguments j against it, the same arguments as ; were used against tlfb reduction from 16 to 14 hours, from 14 to .12 hours, from 12 to 10 hours, and from 10 hours to S hours. ’ ’

Continuing to the accompaniment of a chorus of “Hear, hears” from the Labour benches, Air Atmore said it had to be recognised that the machine was made for man, not man for the machine, and if humanity were, to obtain the benefit of the inventive genius of man and let him rise to his highest destiny, then a shortening of hours of work throughout the whole world must be faced, and must be the next step. Dealing with the Government wage reduction proposals, the Minister saidv he believed that what was submitted to the House was a way out. If they had to curtail expenditure, they had to go where the bulk of expenditure was being made. It could be taken for granted that no iGov,eminent would have made wage cuts in an election year had there been any other way out of the difficulty. He believed, however, that the Government would be doing a wrong thing if, in a time like the present, it did not spend money on the best form of education. Depressions were avoidable. Air P. Fraser (Labour; —Wellington Central): Do you think a man on £S 10s a week can stand the cut? The Minister: I believe the alternative to taking 10 per cent off salaries is a ,10 per cent, dismissal through the whole service. The best alternative has been taken.