TRADE BEING LOST

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 72, Issue 6241, 12 June 1946, Page 10

TRADE BEING LOST

POSITION IN AUSTRALIA I PRESIDENT OF CHAMBER OF | COMMERCE SPEAKS OUT The serious reaction which followed the termination of the war had led to a decline in production and the failure of Australia to supply markets j which were clamoring for our goods. This was stated by the president of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce (Mr A. R. Gordon) at the annual meeting recently , Mr Gordon said Australia must produce more to exist, but the incentive to produce had declined. * Labour was more interested in higher wages and shorter hours—purely the selfish angle, and not the Australian—hence there had been an alarming fall in production in practically every sphere of trade. He firmly believed that the labourer was worthy of his hire, and must receive an adequate recompense for his labour, but in return the labourer must give service and an honest day’s work. Mr Gordon added that many of the industrial stoppages had been disputes between the union and the. community, and not between the employer *und employee. The solution to the problem must come from the co-op-eration between employer and employee and the Government’s impartial representation of the public interest. Black marketing, one of the most insidious forms of vice, had drawn I thousands of unscrupulous people into I its net, and for the sake of the Australian people it must be eliminated.