A BOARD OF INDUSTRY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 50, 13 October 1911, Page 4

A BOARD OF INDUSTRY.

Th Auckland “Star - ’ considers that of the many interesting and novel proposals which Sir John Findlay introduced to the notice of his hearers when speaking the other night, a foremost place may he fairly claimed for the scheme of a permanent Board of Industrial Investigation. Our contemporary goes on to say:—“The need fer some such systematic method of compiling information on social and Industrial questions was ably sot forth, and iho construction of the I march was sketched on purely non-partisan lines. As soon as ever we attempt to consider such an important and inevitable question as the recent rise in the price of food, we sec the advisability of such a course as the AttorneyGeneral has proposed. Has food risen in price because our exports sell well at Home, or because the trusts have cornered part of the world’s food supply, or because wages have risen, or because gold is too plentiful, or because rent and land values are too high or because wo leave too much or too little Protection P There are many ether alternatives that our readers can supply, but to state the case in this form is to justify the proposal to establish a permanent official body empowered to collect authentic information bearing on such vitally important questions as this. Sir John Findlay’s idea is that a Board should be sot up on the lines of the American Economics Bureau to investigate all such questions; that it should include representatives of our staple industries; and that it should be authorised to prepare information for the use and guidance of Government, and of such tribunals as the Arbitration Court. The gravest difficulty that either our judicial authorities or our legislators have to grapple with in milking or administering industrial laws is the inadequacy of the material upon which they have to work, and the lack of properly formulated and authentic evidence, and on the great industrial topics of the day. That such a want would lie well filled by the appointment of a permanent board of officials on the lines Sir John Findlay indicates, is self-evident, and we hope that whoever represents Parnell in the next Parliament, this interesting and valuable scheme will be kept carefully in view by Government when Parliament meets again next year.”