NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19859, 1 February 1928, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

INDUSTRIAL PEACE. Discussing industrial problems at the annual meeting of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, Lord Inchcape said: "If the direct and local method of settling differences, recently foreshadowed by the leaders of industry, is adopted to any large extent, both sides getting down to the basic fa ts and a sane view of the local problerr . we may see a speedy all-round improvement in the production, cost, and marketing of British manufactures, the problems that are to day confronting every trade and which should engage the thought of all adult workers in the land. Business enterprises are dependent on capital, management, and men. 'Employer' and 'employed' are related terras. Those who discharge administrative, directional, or technical duties, are as much employees of an enterprise as the manual workers themselves, and it is equally necessary for all that the undertakings from which they derive their livelihood should be carefully tended and wisely maintained. It is gratifying to observe that the great majority of the Labour leaders here are doing their utmost to bring about peace in industry. They realise that you can't get into a pint pot more than a pint, and that commercial undertakings, if they cannot be run at a profit, or unless they are able to pay expenses, must close down either partially or as a whole, which means throwing more people on to the wretched 'dole.' " HEAVY TAXATION. Some comments on the effects of heavy taxation which have a lesson for New Zealand were made by Lord Grey of Falloden, in a speech at Newcastle recently. New Zealand's taxation was £l2 5s 6d per head of the population last year. It will without doubt be greater this year. Lord Grey noted that British taxation amounted to £l4 per head, as against £6 in the United States, £7 in France and £5 in Germany. He asked if anybody really contended that the country could carry that amount of taxation per head of the population without being handicapped in industry? "You are not going to improve credit," he said, "by increasing taxation. 'An improvement in credit which enables you to convert the debt and reduce the rate of interest upon it would save far more millions than you would .save by merely imposing extra taxation. Pay off a certain amount' of debt by all means, combine both processes if you will, but the second process is going to be by far the most relieving to the country. You can • only improve credit by getting surpluses; not by increasing taxation, but by reducing expenditure. We can all see some ways in which expenditure might' bo reduced, but the present Government have been completely foiled in all their efforts to reduce expenditure. Other Governments may say the same as this Government—that it has tried and simply cannot do it. The answer of the country to this and any other Government must be, 'You say you cannot; we say that you must.' It will be ve'-y unpopular, but every Government is bound to be unpopular, and it might be better to encounter unpopularity for doing a beneficent thing to the country than for persisting in a policy that it knows is harmful. It is just possible that a Government which really did reduce expenditure and improve credit might get some reward by finding there is enough common sense left in the country to appreciate the doing of a good thing. There is this further thing about improved credit: it makes it easier for business to expand, and an expanding business "needs more capital. Credit makes it more easy for each private business to raise capital at a lower rate of interest, and so not only relieves the burden of debt, but actually sets new business going."