PUTTING OUR WORK OUT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22935, 13 January 1938, Page 10

PUTTING OUR WORK OUT

A probable consequence of the Arbitration Court's award giving higher wages to freezing works employees is that work at present done in New Zealand may have to be sent abroad. At present much employment is given by the preparation of semi-wasto products and the processing of low-grade meats. Gelatine and tinned meats may be cited as instances. These side-lines are exploited subject to very narrow profit margins which threaten to be extinguished by the new and higher scale of labour costs. It may no longer pay to do the processing work here and the materials may therer fore have to be exported in bulk and the job done overseas. A direct loss in employment and wages would thus be incurred by New Zealand labour, while farmers would probably have to accept lower prices for livestock. If slaughtering and freezing charges continue to rise, a time may come when it will not pay to slaughter, treat and freeze lowgrade stock, even in bulk. Meanwhile it is probable that New Zealand will have to put a good deal of work out because she cannot get it done cheaply enough at home. That is the effect of a wages policy that takes no account of earnings—of what labour is worth—and so is putting local costs out of balance with costs overseas. The effect strikes home when it is felt in a natural outgrowth or subsidiary of an industry native to the country, as in this case. It should cause even the Government to ponder whither its uneconomic labour policy is leading. The rising flood of imports of manufactured goods is another symptom of the same malady. Work of all sorts is being put out that could and should be done at home, were it not too costly to employ New Zealand workers to do it. The bill has to be paid twice over —first the Dominion pays Australians, Britishers, Americans or Japanese for their labour and then pays New Zealanders to remain idle. Unless wages are restored to an economic basis, the process will end in the Dominion's impoverishment..