ECONOMIC SURVEY

Southland Times, Issue 21362, 7 April 1931, Page 7

ECONOMIC SURVEY

POSITION OF DOMINION

PRESIDENT OF LABOUR PARTY EXPLAINS SUGGESTIONS FOR SOLUTION (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, April 6. A comprehensive survey of the present economic position of New Zealand was made by Mr J. Thorn, president of the New Zealand Labour Party, in the course of his address to the delegates attending the fifteenth annual conference of the party which opened to-day in the Trades Hall. He said with the increase in wealth of the country there should have been a commensurate improvement in the workers’ conditions and if, instead, the workers suffered it was a condemnation of the modern social order. He referred to the displacement of men by machinery and declared the remedy was to reduce hours and to pay wages which would allow workers to come effectively into the market.

Mr Thorn criticized the deflation policy of the banks, one of the results of which, he said, was to enrich the interest of the receiving class and to curtail the buying power of the masses. From the position of the Dominion as he saw it he thought the following deductions reasonable: (1) That New Zealand’s interests are constantly in jeopardy while it almost entirely relies on the London market where a disastrous fall in prices may be ordained by manipulators and speculators. (2) That a gradual development of New Zealand’s local market is desirable to lessen the need to sell in London and as our production is increased it should be devoted to the liquidation of our indebtedness abroad.

(3) That to accomplish this development there should be a socialization of New Zealand’s credit resources and their devotion to the stimulation of primary and secondary industries.

Continuing, he said: “For myself I never felt tlie problem presented by capitalist and financial industry for profit to be more intricate and its solution more difficult than it is to-day. Two things are certain. One is that the remedy cannot be applied by magic and the other is that there is no solution whatever that will take the workers’ interests and well-being into account unless the workers unit industrially and politically and , are ready for the patient yet determined work involved in a reconstructive policy. The situation requires, I think, efforts in the following directions:

“(1) A trades union movement, which can visualize itself in the role of a creator of a new society based on co-operation and which fully appreciates the value of political action because it is now impossible to confine the definition of industrial questions to the negotiations that go on between the workers and the employers. “(2) The fullest possible unity between trade unions and the Labour Party with frequent consultations in a spirit of helpfulness and comradeship so that the most vital effect, can be produced in every situation as it arises, and so that propaganda and Parliamentary work might have the full benefit of the combination and be encouraged and inspired. “(3) Contacts to be established with many organizations serving humanitarian purposes throughout the country. “(4) Endeavours to meet farmers’ organizations for a discussion on common problems with the object of gaining opinion for the Labour Party’s view that fanners are at least entitled to the same economic security and advantages as it is asking for the wage-workers and so that a bond of common interest between two bodies of workers might be strengthened. “In these ways the Labour Party can widen its influence throughout the community and strengthen every tendency towards, social growth. It will act as a democratic leaven and be an instrument for the rejuvenation of the country.”