CRIPPLED INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18080, 3 May 1922, Page 9

CRIPPLED INDUSTRY.

IRON AND STEEL WORKS. CRISIS IN AUSTRALIA. VIEWPOINT OF EMPLOYERS. [from our own correspondent.] SYDNEY. April 26. A serious crisis has been reached i."< the Australian iron and- steel industry. The Broken Hill Proprietary's great steelworks at Newcastle are closing down, finding it impossible to carry on at the present high rate of wages, and the iron and steel works at Lithgow, controlled by Hoskins Ltd., aro, following suit. Mr. Charles Hoskins, giving evidence in the Arbitration Court this week in tup , port of an application for a variation of i the iron 1 and stool workers' award, said that wages here had not come down since tho war, whereas in America they were down to pre-war rates. In England they were also down. In New South Wales they had to pay double the wages that were paid in America. In place of getting orders for 1000 tons a week, as was the 'case formerly, the firm's orders last week had amounted to only 67 tons. Mr. David Baker, manager of the steel works at Newcastle, showed in a speech at tho dinner of tho Institute of Engineers a few nights ago how labour legislation and industrial awards had completely crippled that enterprise. Mr. Baker dealt with the growth of the steel industry. Eight years ago, he said, tho production of steel in Australia was approximately 10,000 tons, and last year tho rate of production was 250,000 tons, of which Newcastle furnished 200,000 tons. In addition to ample capital and raw material, proceeded Mr. Baker, we also had a 'very intelligent force of mechanics, of ordinary labour, and of men equipped to direct them. Touching upon tho attitude of Governments to industry, Mr. . Baker said that there was one condition that was certainly not encouraging tho development of the country industrially, and that was th** regulation of wages by wages boards and the establishment of the Arbitration Court. He believed that the Arbitration Court in Australia was responsible for more industrial disturbance than any other force: more, indeed, than the . radical leaders of the Labour Party. He gave as an instance the fact that labouring men employed in the manufacture of coke at the steel works were paid more than men doing tho same sort of work in other parts of the works. He did not think that paying men in one department more than those in another department was encouraging the men to remain content, nor did it help toward continuity of work and industrial peace. Reduction in Hours. The establishment of a 44-hour week for some of the men employed at the steel works, Mr. Baker declared, meant an increased expenditure of £37,000 for the year. Had it been extended to cover the whole industry there'. would have been an increased expenditure of £150,000. That reduction to 44 hours was made at a time when the rest of the world was passing through the severest industrial struggles it had ever experienced. Was it proper for statesmen to pile a 9 per cent, increase on to the expense of an industry when industries in every part of the "world were dying and Australia was merely waiting for the inevitable depression. "I - say, therefore," said Mr. Baiter, "that the Government in the establishment of the industrial Courts has not provided the assistance to industry that it should provide. We believe the price of material must be reduced to encourage the dove'opment of the country. We do not believe that the development of the country will be increased by building tho tariff wall higher, but it will be increased by reducing the costs of material by selling our products at a lower price." High. Basic Wage. It was asked, Mr. Baker continued, whv their products could not be sold at a lower rate. There was wonderful raw material, wonderful coal, an abundance of labour. When they came here in 1912 all tho small coal that they needed was offered to them at 6s a ton, and to-day it cost them three times as much. The basic wage' here to-day was 40 per centhigher than in England. The price of coke made in their modern ovens was 30 per cent, higher than in England to-day. The crreutest competitors they had ._ were the British iron manufacturers, simply because they had a reduced price of coal, and a reduced price of labour. We here were paying war prices for coal and labour. If there was to be tho develop ment here that there should be conditions must be adjusted in accordance with- the way they had been adjusted in. other parts of the world. ' Referring to the progress of the iron and steel industry, Mr. Baker said that not more than a year ago they were overcrowded with orders, and were preparing to double their output. The works would have employed 7000 men, and the pay roll would have been increased to two and aquarter millions. That would have been in operation next -year. But then their machine rates were pushedsup 9 per.cent., and that in the face of a tide of depression that seemed to be rolling in this direction. Therefore, it could not. be thought strange that all construction work at the works had been stopped. The fine organisation built up to carry on construction had been abandoned because, iii the face of what . the Courts provided for labour, it did not seem a, profitable business to continue to develop the iron and steel industry. In a few days the steel works would stop producing-altogether, not because they did not want to produce, but because they could not sell any of "their materials at a profit. Conferences Advocated. " We cannot go on manufacturing at a loss," declared the speaker, " because, no matter 'how much we may desire to carry on for the sake of the community, we cannot carry on the business that- is owned by the stockholders when it means running the company into enormous debt. I feel very confident that the main body of working men feel that an adjustment is necessary. I believe so far as our own men are concerned that an adjustment of labour costs satisfactory to the company could be made in a few days without any difficulty. If wo had cheaper coal then we would be ready to compete with the English iron, and steel manufacturers. I hope that the future has in store for Australia not a continuation of the Arbitration Court, but instead, a settlement of the rates of pay for working men engaged in our industry by roundtable conferences. I am sure that the men engaged in the industry and the men operating it are better suited tc adjust wages than a Judge who has no knowledge of the industry over which he is called to preside." ~':■' "'' .-■'" .--■■.'■'''