SHORTAGE OF LABOUR

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7852, 14 July 1911, Page 6

SHORTAGE OF LABOUR

The Acting-Premier of Victoria, Mr Watt, was on safe ground when he told a Trades Council deputation which protested against tho importation of artisan workers that it is not a sound proposition that a labour scarcity should ho maintained so that the workers might get higher wages. There is, of course, a tendency on the part of organised labour to shut out competition, and even to gain for members of unions a monopoly of tho available employment. That seems to excite indignation even among others who endeavour to do very much the same thing in another way, for traders and manufacturers are frequently at the office of the Minister of Customs asking him to place a few more bricks on the tariff wall. The anxiety of labour lest its market be flooded differs very little at all from that of manufacturers who seek protection against oversea rivals. AVhat concerns the State—and, immediately, the men responsible for tho administration of publio affairs —is to see how far economic conditions may ho adjusted while at the same time protecting the community from the evil of monopoly, by labour people or any others. ‘While tho idea that a shortage of labour ought to bo maintained is certainly not permissible, it is quite as unsound a proposition that there should be a superfluity of labour to ensure the quick dispatch of orders. Proposals for, as well as objections to, the importation of labour require to be received with a good deal of caution and acted upon, if at all, with circumspection. A Sydney boot manufacturer is reported in this morning’s cable news to have offered a monetary guarantee to employ a hundred extra hands for the next five years. Other employers giving evidence before the New South Wales Labour Shortage Commission have expressed willingness to pay higher wages to apprentices if they can be secured and to give employment to many more workers if tho workers can only be found. It seems likely, therefore, that the labours of tho Commission will yield valuable information, out of which may come practical steps to relieve the lack of labour evidently existing. But it is important that before workers are brought from other lands their employment should be assured under conditions that will not jeopardise the welfare of those now engaged in the industries concerned. It must be shown, before outsiders are “ imported ” into the labour field, that tho new-comers will not - eventually displace those they are intended to supplement. Tho labour shortage in Australia is really symptomatic of conditions which should bo regarded with apprehension. There is far too much city and factory life already in Australia in proportion to rural population, and the lamentations of costumemakers and jewellers about dearth of labour are not in themselves evidence of sound development. The recent census shows that in the two leading States of Australia—Victoria and New South Wales—tho drift from the rural districts to tho cities has been very

pronounced. Fully 39 per cent, of the population of Now South Wales is now in Sydney. It would be wiser to spread some of these people over the empty spaces where tfieir demand would be for ploughs not jewellery, for oornsacks instead of fashionable attiro.