A MORATORIUM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20743, 10 December 1930, Page 16

A MORATORIUM.

Sir, —Any moratorium'of mortgages or debts due would simply react on the.very section of tho community it was designed (o assist, and, in the end, their last stage would be worse than the first. After all, there must ■be credit in tho everyday operations of any community and whatever is done to prejudice that credit or hinder its confident operation must be generally detrimental. But there is a type of moratorium that might lm beneficial to everyone in our community. I refer to a suspension for 12 months of the Arbitration Court wages awards; I mean in respect to wages rates only. .At present it is quite certain that much work was discontinued because it was costing more than it could be sold for; in other words, the product of, a man's work was worth less than his wages. Our Arbitration Court system prevents easy adjustment of wages rates, and, in the absence of that provision, many -men are completely out of work when they might be earning enough to easily keep them. A moratorium suspending the penal clause in respect to wages rates, and permitting rnen to sell their labour in the best available market, would at least result in a considerable amount of work being found and in the gradual economical adjustment of a very difficult problem. The only risk to be run is that here and there an unscrupulous employer might sweat a few employees. I think that risk is very remote in New Zealand, and I am convinced that public opinion is now so definitely against anything of the sort that a very little ventilation of an.actual grievance would quickly rectify it. Nothing,, is more certain than that ..costs of allsorfs must be reduced, and it certainly seems absurd that unemployed shall be denied the right to work at all while prices are being adjusted unless they receive wages which involve a loss on somebody. A temporary moratorium, or suspension of the penal clause, in respect of wages awards would immediately react beneficially on many men now vainiy seeking work. This proposal is meant to benefit workers far more than employers. Common Sense.