TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays FRIDAY, 15th JUNE, 1946 FULL EMPLOYMENT

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 72, Issue 6242, 14 June 1946, Page 4

TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays FRIDAY, 15th JUNE, 1946 FULL EMPLOYMENT

IN New Zealand, as in all countries, the greatest of all political desires is to assure conditions of stability with full employment. Apart, however, from the political promise, it is certainly the key-point in all economic reconstruction and the attendant development of social services that full employment will be held available for the people. What the Minister of Finance said in his last presentation of the Budget is unquestionably sound. •* Our people must be able to acquire purchasing power through employment but it cannot be too strongly emphasised that the standard of living depends upon the volume of goods produced and the services made available.” In furtherance of such a policy the Government has enacted some not very inspiring measures, and various machinery departments have been set up to watch over the employment barometer. The Organisation for National Development haa a somewhat similar function, but it was strapped before it could embark upon the basis of its preparatory establishment work. Somewhat in its place the National Employment Service has come into being, with attendant avenues for industrial training in operation. This can, of course, be all to the good provided that any departmental service can meet the varied needs efficiently I and provide the mobility that is so | necessary between occupations and between places. But, on the other hand, the vigorous licensing system in its many spheres of operation is restrictive, does not move quickly, and is too often more theoretic than practical. The severest handicap is, however, the taxation anomaly, and it is anomalous when compared with the politically inspired hopes for employment promotion. In all too many directions regulatory controls are made to operate, and the effect of regulation must of necessity be the lessening of personal effort. If a broad tally could be taken over all spheres of licensing it would probably be found that more applications are declined than granted. Still more conversely is the expansion and growth of the subsidy system upheld as it is to hold price levels steady, but actually providing indirect channels for the dissipation of the people’s spending power. The cumulative effects of regulatory licensing on the one hand and high taxation for subsidy devices and pensions and what not on the other hand is that the means to create employment is retarded; so that, from' the political standpoint, there is the profession of a desire but the actual restriction of the performance. Nevertheless, what Mr Nash has said is perfectly true. “ The production of goods and services is the prime essential; without which there is no living standard.” Which gives the present opportunity* for the Government to retrace some of its false steps. Soon another Budget will be presented, and the country has been told that it will win the elections. Maybe it will, but the greatest consideration just now is that the budgetary readjustments, if accompanied with retreats from socialist doctrines for political controls, will restore the means enabling full employment to be better assured in the future. The people can be left to

judge the political considerations, but it is the Government that must acknowledge the economic responsibilities.