ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1927, Page 6

ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES

REMEDIES SUGGESTED CESSATION OF INDUSTRIAL STRIFE HARDER WORK AND THRIFT. At the annual meeting of the New Zealand Employers’Federation yesterday, the president (the Hon. T. Shailer Weston, M.L.C.), said: —■ Economists are practically unanimous that the world is now passing through an era of falling prices. This is a hard trial for the producer, manufacturer and trader, whether in country or town. With lower prices each individual has to face a decreased turnover and hence less nett money- profits. Development of the potentialities of a businc s simply makes up this leeway. Up till the last twelve months the manufacturer and trader has fared better" in New Zealand than the primary producer. Increased competition from outside industries and lowered purchasing power of the community- due to the fall in the value of our exports have now affected the manufacturer and the trader. There are two remedies, certain and effective, in New Zealand’s present quandary. The first is cessation of industrial str. e and the substitution of a sense of social co-opera-tion for class consciousness. Your advisory board have preached this advice for some years past, and for reiterating this advice, it makes no apologies. If Labour leaders will assist in initiating a desire for industrial peace in lieu of the present sense of continuous class war, they .. .aid do much to bring ebont a rise in real wager. Labour should never forget that with New Zealand prices at the level of 165, as compared with 100 in 1913, a drop of 16J points in this price level is equivalent to an advance of 10 per cent., in money wages. Such an increase in,.money, wage?..paid in this Dominion would mean some millions. Surely- it is worth the workers’ while to co-operate in bringing about by increased production a drop in prices which would be equivalent to sueh an increase in money wages. OLD-FASHIONED REMEDY. The other remedy is an old-fashioned one —it is nothing else than harder work, more thrift and more efficient machinery and methods of production. This is undoubtedly a dull and unpopular remedy. Depression is something which New Zealand has grown unaccustomed to: its presence has rather staggered our judgments. One of the great dangers of the last twelve months has been, and still is, that the public may place their faith in leaders who profess ability to banish hard times and restore losses by artificial remedies easy to take and of little real value. It is unnecessary to particularise these remedies. The newspapers have been full of them, as they have been almost daily strongly advocated by enthusiasts. Human nature is such Iliac a man is prepared to blame anything and anybody rather than himself for failure, and generally is quite prepared to sacrifice his neighbour to save himself a loss. Hence these enthusiasts win converts for their easy remedies involving State aid and little personal effort, while the oldfashioned remedies involving self-reliance and greater individual effort lose support. As a matter of fact there was very little fault to find in the general lay-out of the producing, manufacturing and trading system in New Zealand before the war. The war threw its working out a little but our post-war problems were due not so much to faults in this system, but rather to abuses by individuals of its advantages. Given reasonable time to adjust these, that system requires little or no amendment. It is in the efforts of the individual rather than alterations of the system the return to prosperity lies. FARMERS TACKLE PROBLEM. The every-day dairy farmer has tackled and is tackling this problem well. Realising that he had no time to lose, he lias concentrated his efforts upon improving his herds and manuring his lands. In consequence his production was increased last season. His efforts will have a cumulative effect. There should be a further substantial increase the coming summer. Ju this way he will be able to meet lower Home prices when and as they come. Providence helps those who help themselves. This summer better prices and bountiful supplies of grass appear probable. The farmer will be wise to remember these aids may disappear another year. Welcome as they both are as a temporary help they will be other than a blessing if they were to induce the farmer to relax his present efforts. The result of the dairy farmers’ increased production has been to assist the whole Dominion.

One of the hotly advocated remedies for the present depression is the abolition of the Arbitration Court and of preference to unionists. The abolition of the Court would not, however, abolish collective bargaining by trade unions. The trade union system has become so much a British institution that the abolition of the Court would not mean its extinction. The proposal to abolish the Arbitration Court is really a protest against the abuse by trade unions of their great powers. j Although trade unions may use their undoubted great power for offensive rather than defensive purposes, the proper remedy for this evil is the curtailment of their special legislative privileges as carried recently in Great Britain. The abolition of the Arbitration Court is not the appropriate remedy. It certainly will not remove- the present depression. Y’ou might as well treat a case of cancer in the stomach as one of simple indigestion. Your advisory board for reasons recently published, after consultation with the executives of the various individual employers’ associations, is opposed to it. MINOR IMPROVEMENTS. Undoubtedly, however, the Arbitration Act might be improved in some minor respects. Personally, however, I would not like to alter the present constitution of the Court. If you are to have coordination awards you must have permanent assessors. Assessors appointed for each particular dispute would prove far too expensive and unwieldy and would lack the knowledge of other awards necessary to enable them to coordinate these with their own. To replace the present Court with a tribunal of three Judges sitting together would also be a mistake. It would be difficult to get legal men with the necessary economic and business knowledge, and legal men dealing with: industrial awards year in and year out would ..tend to become too stereotyped. Anyhow,. Aus-

iralia is now experimenting in that particular direction—why not await their result? After all, the present agitation against the Act is due mainly to one award. So long as Labour itself will co-operate with management in increasing production and improving methods 91 work, I favour no reduction in money wages eixeept ae a last resource. If, however, Labour or its lenders will not co-operate with a fair management prepared hot to reduce money wages then such a reduction may be brought about by the force of circumstances. Businesses are carried on to make profits. If operations simply mean continued losses, businesses must cease to operate and to provide work for their employees. The British, however, have too much common-sense not to take the sound view pointed out by experience. Everything points in England to a rapprochement between Labour and Management. What is good enough for England should be good enough for this country. Given this rapprochement and a determination on the part of every one to work harder, to save more -and to improve methods wherever possible, we need have no fear for the future. The war taught us how effective the combined effort of a Whole nation imho dwith mfwyp mfwyp mfwyp pu bued with one spirit can be. If we follow the example of the dairy farmer, if we work harder and intelligently ae lie has done the last year, the New Zealand of 1029 should be a much more prosperous New Zealand than that of 1927.