New Zealanders Too Easy Going, Professor Says

Northern Advocate, 27 October 1949, Page 2

New Zealanders Too Easy Going, Professor Says

AUCKLAND, Thu. (Sp.).—“New Zealanders have .become too easy going and we have got very slack,” Professor A. B. Fitt, dean of the faculty of education at Auckland University College, told the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Institute of Secretaries last night.

“Our morale is inclined to serious thing, because I am quite testing time before long.”

be falling rapidly, which is a sure there is going to be a stern

Professor Flit added: "We shall be for it if we do not pull up a bit. The world just has to work harder —that is why I am worried about, this country.

POLIO CASES IN S. AUCKLAND HAMILTON. Wed., (Sp.).— The recurrence of infantile paralysis is reported in South Auckland, where there are one positive and three suspected cases. The positive case is a girl aged two, from Rotorua. One suspect is a body aged nine, from Rotorua, and the other two ore a woman aged 34 from Raglan and a man aged 42 from Glen Murray.

“We are getting terribly slack and lam distressed about it. We must see to it that we increase production. “I recently visited Britain and I saw there a terrible amount of slackness, but there is even more here. “It is not the fashion to work hard, but I do not believe that anyone gets much happiness from just going through the motions and doing half a day's work in a day."

CAN’T AFFORD IT Professor Fltt spoke in favour of incentive payments. “We are in a period in which individual differences tend to be Ironed out.” he said. “The ideal does not seem to be for each person to produce the maximum, but rather to keep one in step with everyone else. “Many unions oppose incentive payments, profit sharing and other devices which have been well tried and found successful in encouraging initiative. “We cannot allow .these tilings to continue much longer. Things are in a parlous state in the British economic world and we are going to feel tensions soon that we have never felt before.

“We cannot afford to go slow. “All these thiggs I have said about more work and output do not call for anything longer than the 40-hour week,” Professor Fitt continued. ’ “If more systematic and scientific working were instituted, the proposal for a 44-hour week we hear of occasionally would not be needed." There was a need to plan working hours to avoid fatigue, and greater output could often be achieved by frequent rest periods. In some cases 15 minutes of relaxation in every hour had proved of great value.

HIGH IDEALS NEEDED "Very few occupations are not amenable to this type of thing.” said Professor Fitt. "It has been tried successfully in all kinds of factories. It might bethought that the waterside have this idea about their ‘spelling’ but in their case it has not been correctly worked out.

“They have worked it out to give the minimum of output, not the maximum. If it were scientifically planned, spelling would be a good thing.” Turning his attention to business principles .the speaker called for more of the professional attitude and the spirit of service. The wretched old phrase “business is business” was no longer worthy, representing as it did a survival of tribal warfare.

It was too often associated with another slogan: “Everything is all right if you can get away with it.” These things were parallel with the way in which a native tribe would develop high ethical ideals within its own group, but ignpre the feelings of others. .