TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays MONDAY, 7th FEBRUARY, 1949 MAN-MADE SHORTAGES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 78, Issue 7016, 7 February 1949, Page 4

TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays MONDAY, 7th FEBRUARY, 1949 MAN-MADE SHORTAGES

ARRIVING in New Zealand a few weeks ago, Lord Nuffield offered comment on the ruling world situation and touched on very elementary questions of supply. In effect, he claimed that a bountiful Nature had not failed, and that crude materials were as plentiful as ever. What had happened was that man had devised instruments to restrict and restrain supply. His views bear examination. Apart from any other shortages, the housing problem as it exists to-day, with all its attendant economic, social, and domestic handicaps, can be taken as an example to indicate the grent truth of the visitor’s opinions. The clays and the minerals, the tree and plant life are continuous under conditions of w*ar or peace. A shortage of any building material is not because Nature has failed; only man has created the means to impoverish the supply of necessary materials. By instruments which curtail the

various agencies for processing Nature’s crudes, by methods which deliberately lower the flow’ of materials, and by influences which make more difficult and which aim to regulate the movement of exchange the more normal ratio of supply and demand has been disordered. An economy Ayhich arose under war conditions has followed largely into the <days of peace. Controls w’hich could have been justified when the need existed to divert human energies so as to gain the peace have been preserved on an assumption that civilian needs can ie regulated and directed. Behind it all organised groups have advanced 'the selfish welfare without regard or respect to the public interest. At this very moment much in building activity has been slowed down if not halted whilst unconstitutional methods are being exploited to satisfy the sectional demand. It is not as though the normal channels for the overhaul of industrial grievances have closed or have been withdrawn; the means for conciliation are ignored as selfish groups persist in an endeavour to compel compliance with selfish claims. To that extent a democratic system of government has failed, and the whole community is being held to ransom while Governments appear pow r erless to uphold those codes which base upon the consideration of public interest. In the process of it all the exchange mechanism has been thrown out of balance for a higher nominal spending power but an impoverishment of real purchasing value. It is not enough to point to the dangers of the ruling inflationary trend while organised groups so persistently widen the gap between nominal and actual values. Moreover, it is beyond question that supply shortages are deliberately devised as a part of the plan to aid the selfish motive. No matter how* regarded, the fact persists that Nature is as bountiful as ever, and that only man’s stupidity has created the grave economic problem which has its effect in the domestic and social lives of the people. The principle in the most elementary economy is that human ingenuity, resourcefulness, and enterprise can give security and stability. There is no alternative to human endeavour. If it is withheld, and if there is orgonised selfishness for a break-dowm in the agencies for fulfilling human needs, then the community must suffer. It is a foolish economy, surely, to place emphasis on the selfish advantage w’hen, by so doing, there is only an aggregate of still wider disparity between normal and real value. It has happened before, and it can happen again, that human greed ends in collapse, with community impoverishment and hardship. Prosperity can become the starting-point of adversity. It is w r ell to ponder the prospect.