THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, JULY 5, 1940 WORKING FOR VICTORY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23700, 5 July 1940, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, JULY 5, 1940 WORKING FOR VICTORY

"No one would say we are working at. our maximum effort yet," said the Leader of the Opposition in his criticism of the Budget. Here Mr. Hamilton struck at the basic weakness of the Government s policy, tho failure to organise and utilise New Zealand's labour force to the full. This economic weakness, unless corrected, must in the end undermine tho Finance Minister's financial structure. Unless the latter be firm founded on goods and services, it will not stand. Mr. Nash recognises the fact, or at least he does so verbally. In his Budget he returns to the theme again and again. At the end he says that finance is important but the most important is work and production. And at the beginning he declares that "we must think in terms of goods and services, and not in terms of money." Mr. j Nash shows how war diverts men and materials from productive to destructive ends and how this diversion must affect the supply of consumable goods. Everyone on the home front must do with less. How much less depends on how much extra effort the community is prepared to make in order to compensate for the deductions and losses required to prosecute the war. There is no question that the people realise the imperative need to work harder to win victory and avoid too deep a depression of living standards. They are ready and willing to contribute the time and the labour to raise output and the national dividend. What is lacking in all branches of production is the direction and organisation that the Government can supply, as well as the removal of the shackles binding industry down to normal levels in this abnormal emergency. As Mr. Hamilton said, "we retain our 40-hour week and awards, and conditions are still almost on a peacetime basis, w T hile Britain works the clock round." It is not only the labour force of men and women that is limited to 40 hours a week; most machines and factories stand idle for 128 out of the 168 hours., On the farm, too, the increase of output is hampered for lack of sufficient skilled hands, by high costs due to Government policies, and by the slow official response, to the farmers' requests for a clear lead on what they should produce. At the same time too large a proportion of the nation's man-power is still engaged on non-productive work. The Prime Minister admitted on Wednesday night that no less than 33,841 men were still employed on public and relief works, a number more than sufficient to man two modern military divisions. If only half the number could be fitted by training to take their place on the land or in forge and factory, a very substantial contribution would be made to the common : pool and toward easing the whole financial and economic position. The Government has talked for months and years of effecting the transfer but there is little or no evidence of progress.

Another impediment at the present time resides in the uncertainty over what will be required of citizens in respect to the compulsory loan and the realisation of overseas securities, and concerning the basis of the excess profits tax. The Government is calling for increased enterprise and output but, as Mr. Hamilton fairly pointed out, people cannot make new commitments until they can compute the new obligations the Government proposes to place on them. Mr. Nash should remove this impediment at the earliest possible moment, so that people will know where they stand and be enabled to proceed confidently. In the field of enterprise as well as in those of labour and production, it is not enough for the Government to preach and exhort. It must help to create the conditions in which piecepts and principles can be applied. And the main head of failure has been and is the mobilisation and organisation of man-power for production on which, as Mr. Nash shows in his Budget, so very much depends —"for it is a vital factor in any sustained effort on the fighting front." The Government has not stopped short .of conscription to maintain the fighting front and can therefore possess no valid excuse for correcting the failure hitherto to call forth and compel the maximum exertion on the home front.