ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21196, 29 November 1930, Page 14

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

A NATIONAL CONFERENCE. MR COATES’S ADVOCACY. (Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, November 28. A national conference representative of all interests in the community 'to dis cover a means of accommodating the in dustries of New-Zealand to the new economic conditions was proposed by the Leader of the Reform Party'(Mr J; 0Coates) in the course of an address to his constituents at Matakohe. “ I wish to urge upon the Government and the people that a national • economic conference should , he called together at • tjie . earliest possible moment, partly to continue the good work started by the National In dustrial Conference of 1928 and partly to help in a solution of the new problems which have arisen during the last two years,” said Mr Coates.' “ I am not an alarmist, and I.am convinced that this Dominion, provided that it is prepared to face the position with courage 1 and common. sense v can re-establish its public finances and its industries upon a sound economic basis. only danger lies in the continuance of the policy of allowing matters to drift. What we have to face is, the fact that pr>ces in the world market: have declined on an average about 30 per cent., and that it has become urgently necessary -for us in New Zealand to readjust our own costs of production to meet this new level of world , prices. The position to-day is that in many of this Dominion’s industries, including the chief primary industries and many! of the secondary and distributive industrial] ■ which depend upon them, the total of wages, plus interest! plus materials, plus taxation, plus other costs of production, is greater than the probable market return for the product. In such' circumstances it is impossible for the industry to be carried on, and the result is an increasing amount. of unemployment. During the past year our farmers have received over £9,000,000 less for their produce than they received in the previous year. This represents an average cut of £IOO a year in every farmer’s earnings, the farmer’s spending power being thus reduced. It is obvious that the-income of all other businesses and industries must suffer correspondingly since the farmer can no longer afford to buy, services and commodities at the old prices. Moreover, there has occurred a decline in the level of British wholesale. prices from 159 points in 1925 to 136 in 1929, and to 12ji *in June and 105 in November, 1930. When this fall in import priced, affects New Zealand many of our own secondary industries will find themselves in difficulties unless they can reduce their own prices to a competitive level* and this also depends upon their being able to reduce their own costs of production. I believe that these serious and urgent problems must be faced and dealt with, and that the best method will be found in the calling together of a national economic conference representative of the primary producers, manufacturers, importers, financial, institutions, and the workers, all of whom are vitally concerned in that their very means of livelihood depend upon the effecting of such a reduction of costs as will enable their industries to continue. Such a conference should consider also the effect of the national overhead, that is, the costs of Government, and public undertakings in relation to. the burden of taxation, on the producers.”