LABOUR IN AUSTRALIA

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11247, 27 June 1922, Page 9

LABOUR IN AUSTRALIA

INDUSTRIES LANGUISHING. “IMPOSSIBLE IDEALS." Mr Thomas Buckland, chairman of tho Bank of New South Wales, remarked at the annual meeting of that institution on the industrial situation in Australia: ,r That our industries are languishing, and unemployment abounds are two facts too evident to ignore, and the reasons are just as obvious as the facts are/' he said. "Quite a short time ago the Broken ±LUI Proprietary Company started what promised to 'be one of the greatest enterprises ever attempted in Australia, namely, the production of steel in large quantities The «yums of money sent out of Australia for the .purchase of rails for railway construction, end other steel necessaries too numerous to mention, have been stupendous, and yet this magnificent enterprise, capable of sustaining well many thousand© of people, is fading away for the chief reason that coal is costing more to produce here than. In other countries, which is altogether wrong, seeing that there are no natural disabilities in the production of our coal, and living expenses are much des© with us than with most other white peoples of the world. What applies to the steel works applies equally to other austries, and make© it manifest that our past Governments have encouraged impossible ideals, and the sooner we get back to material facts and not fancies the better for every man, woman, and child in the State. The present Government, which has juet come into power, ib evidently endeavouring to meet the seriousness of the position. It appears to realise that it iB necessary for a country to be governed for the good of the whole of tho community, and not for any one particular section of it."