AUSTRALIAN CONDITIONS.

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

AUSTRALIAN CONDITIONS.

MUCH UNEMPLOYMENT. READJUSTING WAGES. The conditions in Australia to-day were the subject of some remarks by the Minister for Customs, the Hon. W. D. Stewart, yesterday. "Matters appear very prosperous on the surface," he said. "There has not occurred in Australia the same inflation in land values, as has occurred in New Zealand, and consequently there is not the same fall in values there as there is here. At the same time the various large industries are feeling the effect of foreign competition, notwithstanding the high tariff in operation. This was most, noticeable in the iron' and steel industry at Newcastle, which employed 5000 men in normal times. Half of this number had been put off some time , ago, and last week the general manager of these large works had informed him that he was paying oft a further 2500 men. "There is considerable evidence of unemployment," said Mr. Stewart, "and whi'e I was in Melbourne the press reported that there were at least 1200 married returned soldiers out of work in that city." The industrial position was greatly complicated, he continued, by the various Arbitration Courts and wages boards in the different cities, and the presence of the Federal Arbitration Court made a further complication, for example, manufacturers in New South Wales, complained that they were compelled to pay wages out- of all proportion to those paid in Victoria, and they were consequently greatly hampered in carrying on their industries. The difficulties of readjusting wages and hours of labour and other conditions were much greater in Australia than in New Zealand. The export trade of Australia both with the East, in the Pacific and elsewhere, was most essential to the Australian manufacturer in times of prosperity, but still more so in times of adversity. During the war Australia had a golden opportunity of extending her export markets in the East, but. owing to the difficulty of readjusting the cost of production to world conditions, these markets had practically been lost in the meantime. He had no doubt that when conditions in the country became normal matters would right themselves and that an era of general prosperity would again be experienced throughout the Commonwealth.