The Daily News SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1935. DISTRESSED AREAS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1935, Page 6

The Daily News

SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1935. DISTRESSED AREAS.

OFFICES? NEW PIZfMOUxB. Ctnrio Strode STRATFORD. Broadway. HAWERA. Hlsh Stmt.

The recommendations of Mr. Malcolm Stewart, the commissioner appointed to investigate the most difficult of all Great Britain’s unemployment _ problems, may perhaps be considered the Government’s alternative to the programme suggested by Mr. Lloyd George. The “distressed areas” are those in the northern counties of England where coalmining, iron and steel, and shipbuilding were the principal industries. Two of those industries had, in fact, grown up together, and at a time when the presence of supplies of coal and of iron ore in juxtaposition was almost sufficient to ensure the success of any enterprise that could use such raw material. They were developed when England’s supremacy as a manufacturer had scarcely been challenged. The mining districts in particular had been developed in a period when individualism was at its height. Competition was the sole test of efficiency and immediate profit more important than development for the future. The consequence was that many coalmines were faulty in design and construction through lack of foresight, and when the challenge came from the foreign producer were unable to stand a competition often aided by Government subsidies, lower wages and standard of living, and the fact that the sources of supply were being developed at a later period than those in England. Hence the foreigner could avoid the. errors made in Britain and could cheapen costs of production accordingly. Besides foreign competition that of oil and electricity had to be faced by the coal industry. Its position was aggravated by industrial strife, which competitors naturally exploited as much as possible, and when the last big struggle between employers and miners ended nine years ago it was obvious that the coalmining industry could never reabsorb the quantity of labour previously engaged. So far as obsolete and expensive plants were concerned the position of the iron and steel manufacturers was much the same as that of the coalmine owner. Foreigners could undersell the British product even within the United Kingdom, and, under the old “free trade” fiscal policy, brought Britain’s iron and steel industry to ruin. Shipbuilding suffered from the desire of every nation to build its own merchant navy, with the result that there were more vessels built than were required for the freights offering. Here, again, many of Britain’s plants were obsolete, or at all events more expensive to operate than those of her foreign competitors, who in addition often received heavy subsidies from their Governments. The three industries are recovering, but the process Js slow, and dependent upon the elimination of redundant plants and the reduction of working costs wherever possible. Indirectly this will aid employment in the long run, but in the meantime there are whole districts inhabited by workpeople who have been brought up to specialised occupations, who are not quick to absorb new ideas or employment, and who have suffered the blighting effects of years of involuntary idleness. It was little wonder that the Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin, told the Commons recently that the distressed areas constituted the most stubborn economic problem the Government of Great Britain was grappling with. The commissioner’s report is said to contain “sweeping recommendations,” but judged on the cabled summary the report seems to break little fresh ground. Emigration, small holdings, and sub-

sidies for new industries to.be established seem the most important of the recommendations. It will be observed that there is no reference to any large scheme of public works, and the necessity for reorganisation of industry is admitted even though it may increase rather than reduce the number of the unemployed in the meantime. The use of coal is to be stimulated by the use of scientific methods, which may mean an extension of the extraction of motor spirit and other oils from coal which is now proceeding in Great Britain, and in return for State aid mining royalties are to revert to the State. There is nothing very radical in these proposals, even in regard to royalties, for their present owners have found them of little value while the mines haye remained idle, and if by their transfer to the State the industry can be resuscitated there will be other ’benefits accruing to land owners which should more than compensate them for the loss of mining royalties. The commissioner’s report makes it evident that there is no royal road to the elimination of unemployment even when a country has the resources of Britain wherewith to seek and follow such a path. That is a reflection to be commended to those in New Zealand who are so profuse in their promises to find a quick solution for unemployment in the Dominion and its attendant difficulties.