HIGHER PRODUCTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26541, 16 August 1947, Page 6

HIGHER PRODUCTION

KEY TO LOWER PRICES OPINION OF MR PRIME A supplementary opinion is added by Mr W. Cecil Prime, the assessor for the employers. “The main point I wish to emphasise,” Mr Prime says.. “is that the cure for the principal ills from which the workers in this country are alleged to be suffering and which this court is asked to remedy by increasing wage rates lies not in the hands of this court, but rather in the political field. The fact that certain Government subsidies are to be discontinued, as announced by the Minister of Finance, makes it certain that the prices of goods and services affected will have to rise overall by approximately the amount by which the subsidies are reduced or cancelled, in addition to the amount required to cover increased wage costs. “ How far an undertaking by employers to pass on the results of increased production or lower handling and distribution costs in lower prices would have an effect I do not know, but I am convinced that the principle of increasing production in order to lower prices of consumable goods and services is the only method by which the purchasing power and thus the standard of living of the people of New Zealand, or of any country, can be improved. “ I regret to feel that it is necessary to emphasise that the chief cause and the principal reason for the increased wage rates now announced lies in the fact that employers, by bidding against one another for a seemingly diminished supply of labour, have pushed minimum wages rates up so far beyond the court’s standards as to make revision necessary and advisable.”