A DIFFICULT YEAR

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17454, 31 December 1930, Page 11

A DIFFICULT YEAR

LABOR LEADER’S VIEWS SUGGESTED REMEDIES PROBLEM FOR. ALL PARTIES (Per Press Association.) WESTPORT, this day. This morning the following message was handed to the press by Air. 11. E. Holland, leader of the Labor Party: “I join in voicing the universal wish for happiness and prosperity in the coming year, fully realising that the problem before all of us is how to translate the human element of the message into line with the experiences of our every day lives, for after all real happiness is that which, finds its expression not in (lie lives of a privileged section, hut in the homes of the people as a whole. The sum total of prosperity is a condition which prevails when the people in the mass are lifted above the haunting fear of want. ■ How to bring that about is a real social problem—how to provide every adult member of the. community with the opportunity to earn a means of purchasing a sufficiency of the necessaries of life for his wife and family and himself, and to how make adequate provision for those whom accident or sickness will prevent from winning a living by their own labor. “There is no shortage of the necessaries of life in this most riehlyproductive country. There never has been such a shortage. There has been, and there is, a large-scale failure to bring the laboring power of willing men who are worklcss into application with nature’s waiting resources, and because of this failure wo have been, and are now, confronted with the monstrous paradox of women and children enduring poverty,- want, and hunger in a land in which a superabundance of fond and clothing and other human requirements are produced. In a country with immense areas lying idle, with millions of pounds’ worth of national and local public works waiting to he done, with a multitude of primary amt secondary industries struggling to maintain a precarious existence, and awaiting encouragement and assistance, avc have the equally monstrous paradox of thousands of unemployed men clamoring for the right to work, which means the right to live. WAGE REDUCTION OPPOSED

■“What is the remedy ? The duty of all parties is to provide an effective answer to the question, especially is it the duty Of the Government for the time being. Certain of our primary industries are suffering for the time being because of what appears to be a deflation process operating in other lands, as well as in our own, but as I see it, the position is not nearly so dismal as some have a tendency to present it. New Zealand, like Australia, is a country of rapid recoveries from passing economic depressions, and Avhon the present position in relation to our export values is viewed in comparison with the averages of past years, the need for hopelessness and pessimism disappears. At the same time we all realise the immediate difficulties with which the primary producers are faced, and it seems to lie that the greatest of these insofar as the bona fide working farmer is concerned is the problem of his interest liabilities. In times of economic stress when cheaper credits are his outstandng need, the money market lias a habit of tightening against the primary producer in common with the rest, of the community. On those who hold'the power, the obligation rests to provide a better organisation of credit than that which now exists, and studi organisation can only effectively take place under public control. “No policy of wage reductions could help New Zealand at this juncture. It certainly could not help the working farmer, whose wages bill frequently is a small circumstance compared with his interest bill. Widespread wage reduction would have for its main effect the lowering of the living standard of the people as a whole, and there would be a disastrous curtailment of purchasing power, and consequently a severe depreciation of the local market in which the farmer sells his products. Such a policy would accentuate the period of economic depression and would tend to precipitate the very crisis wo wish to avoid. It will, moreover, lie likely to affect the volume of our exports, for since exports arc paid for by imports it follows that our capacity to export is conditioned by our capacity to consume the imports we receive.

WORK OR SUSTENANCE, “Whatever party governs during the coming year it can only succeed provided its legislative enactments are framed, and its administrative activities shaped, iu such a way as to make for stability for those who render social service to the Dominion. Close attention will have to be devoted to problems surrounding the operations of agricultural and pastoral primary producers, and also to those who are engaged in the output of coal and timber, other equally important primary products. State aid and en'conragement must of necessity be forthcoming in the case of these, and also secondary industries. No willing worker should lie compelled to remain idle. If the right to work is denied it follows that unemployment sustenance must he forthcoming, ‘but the payment of wages for useful work done is emphatically more satisfactory to the worker and the community than sustenance in lieu of Work.

“How then can employment be provided? By selecting thousands of the most, suitable men from the ranks of the unemployed and setting them to work reading, clearing, and preparing for settlement lands that are now unoccupied and unworked; by the employment of other men on public Works that are necessary, and consequently of economic value to the people of New Zealand ; by building up and developing both primary and secondary industries ; by shortening the hours of labor, particularly in tlio.se industries into which labor-saving machinery has been extensively introduced ; by a serious endeavor to stabilise purchasing 'power; and by a .courageous determination to maintain the living standard of the people at |he highest possible level. “May tlie coming of the new year bring a fuller recognition of the identity of interests of all who give service in tho useful occupations of the country. May it, bring such a change of economic conditions that the social idea will ultimately find its application in the processes of distribution, equally with the processes of production. May the new year bring happiness and prosperity for ail, with the labor of the hand and the brain reaping its true reward.”