THE FLOUR INDUSTRY

Northern Advocate, 9 December 1936, Page 4

THE FLOUR INDUSTRY

WHO BENEFITS BY RATIONALISATION?

An impromptu debate on the pros and cons of the fixation of flour charges took place at the meeting of the Whangarei Sub-provincial Executive. of the Farmers’ Union yesterday. Mr J. G. Barclay, M.P., contended that the Government’s policy had resulted in flour being reduced in price. On the other hand, Mr A. E. Robinson, provincial secretary, claimed that, as. a result of rationalisation in the flour industry, the price of the manufactured commodity had not been reduced nearly enough. It had simply enabled factories, which had previously been uneconomic, to continue, and had substituted a glorified taeaurocratic control.

Mr Barclay admitted that the benefit of rationalisation had been passed on to the workers in the flour industry, rather than the consumers of its products. It had enabled the introduction of shorter hours and higher pay, without any increase in the price of flour to correspond with increases which had occurred in other manufactured lines. Fixation of prices kept commodities down to a minimum.

Mr Robinson; In other words the advertiser, printer, commercial traveller, and clerk have suffered to make more wages fbr the wage-earner in the flour industry. Mr K. Stevens: What’s wrong with that? Mr Robinson; The farmer is a poorer man than the wage-earner.