The Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. TUESDAY, OCT. 28, 1919. NEARING THE PRECIPICE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11930, 28 October 1919, Page 4

The Rangitikei Advocate. TWO EDITIONS DAILY. TUESDAY, OCT. 28, 1919. NEARING THE PRECIPICE.

IN the Arbitration Court at Auckland the other/ day Mr .Justice Stringer uttered a truth and a prophecy, when he said —“I suppose that every increase of wages adds to the cost of living of every other section of workers. It will go on until we topple over the precipice.” We have Iona: been marching on towards that precipice, but not because of the increase of wages. These have had to be increased because the cost of living has advanced owing to the decrease in the purchasing power of money earned. The Judge was quite right in saying that a wage increase means greater cost of living, but it is not the primary cause. The real cause is our vicious system of restriction of trade, which artificially adds to the cost of everything wo require. We are glad to note that In Australia*the march to the precipice is still more rapid, because this means that it will be checked the sooner, for the time must come when the people, instead of trying to fix a basic wage, will search tor and find the basic cause of ail the trouble. Both here and in Australia the cost of living should be cheaper than in any other country, for the land is productive, and its products realise good values. But when we receive the money from the outside purchaser we find that it cannot be exchanged among ourselves for its full value. It has pot yet struck a majority of the people that the fault for this originates with ourselves. We have adopted a restrictive policy for the mere purpose of creating locally work for work's sake, and we therefore maintain an army of parasites to do that for us which can be done bettor and cheaper for us by others. Wo divert labour from useful and profttable industries, that it may bo'bmployed in the useless and costly. There are, of course, contributing causes, such as shorter hours, too many holidays, and the “go-slow” policy, but these are merely minor causes, not the main cause, though they .are connected with it, because if there were no restrictions they could not originate. Every week sees a further decrease in the purchasing power of the money for our products, bat as the best lessons are received

in the school of bitter experience, and no others in this case seem likely to.be effective, the sooner we topple over the precipice the better will it be.