MR BURNETT’S BUDGET SPEECH.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18646, 15 August 1930, Page 11

MR BURNETT’S BUDGET SPEECH.

VITAL PROBLEMS REVIEWED. EDUCATION AND LAND SETTLEMENT. In the course of his Budget speech, Mr T. D. Burnett (Temuka) said there were some matters which he wished to bring under the notice of the Government and the country. In these critical times, when unemployment was bo rampant, and when it had cost upwards of a million and a half sterling to the Government alone in unemloyment in the last year, serious doubts arose as to the working efficacy of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act. Arbitration Law. “There is a feeling throughout the country,” Mr Burnett continued, “that the industrial measure—a fair weather measure which has been functioning in good times, and on a rising market—is not the proper machinery to adjust industry to the changing conditions, and therefore that it is serving as a direct measure against the ideal employment of labour. I want to bring under the notice of the House, an arbitration award that has been functioning very well, and that is in full accord with the conditions prevailing to-day. I refer to the shearers’ award, which is on a sliding scale, and in my opinion is a model agreement that could be copied with advantage in regard to a number of other industries. Let me read an extract from that agreement, which 'was made on the 19th October, 1928. Clause (a) contains this:— “For the current season and for two seasons thereafter the rates for shearers and shed hands shall be adjusted in accordance with the movement of wool prices as determined by the Government Statistician’s index numbers for export prices of wool (calculated for June years) taking as a base a price index number of 1800 for the present year equals 30/- per 100 for shearers, and the rates prescribed in the 1926 award for shed hands plus 2id per hour for hourly hands or 7/6 per week for weekly hands. A movement of 50 units in the index number up or down shall equal 6d per 100 for shearers and ?-d per hour or 1/6 per week for shed hands. Provided that the rate per 100 shall not fall below 25/-, and the rate for shed hands shall not be reduced more than 2*d per hour below the 1926 award rates. All movements of the index numbers shall be calculated to the nearest 50 units above or below the base.”

Mr Burnett pointed out that this award provided for a sliding scale, fluctuating according to the price of wool on the London market, from 25/to 35/- per 100 sheep shorn, and clause (c) was an integral part of the agreement, for it provided: —“The determination of the index number for each year shall be the work of a Committee consisting of the Government Statistician and one representative each of the employers’ and shearers’ unions. This Committee, not later than the first day of October in each year, shall announce the index number and the rates of pay for the forthcoming season.” This was the most flexible award in the industrial world of New Zealand to-day. It was an admirable award, and was functioning very well, and there was little or no dissatisfaction with it. It provided for a decent minimum, and that the men shall enjoy an increased scale of pay when there was an increase in wool prices. The Hon. S. G. Smith (Minister of Labour): “Is there complete satisfaction with the Committee?”

Mr Burnett: “Yes, and I am speaking advisedly. In my opinion, the bringing in of these unemployment measures of relief and legislation to deal with the subject is most unfortunate. It is a tacit admission that our industrial system, as we have hitherto known it, is breaking down. I cannot imagine a more blighting influence on a young fellow setting out in life in the industrial world to-day, full of enthusiasm and ambition to better himself, than to be told: ‘Our legislators have made an unholy mess of our industrial arrangements, and we are going to tax you young fellows to get us out of the mess.’ It would have shown more statesmanship on the part of the Government, and the Prime Minister, if inquiry had been made into the working of the Arbitration Act as it is to-day. and how it is sheltering certain industries, while the rest of the Dominion, the primary producers particularly, are out in the storm and have to take whatever London parity offers for their produce.”

Education of Girls. “An integral art of our industrial system,” Mr Burnett proceeded, “is that of education. The Minister of Education, for all his ability and sparkling all-round thought, missed the opportunity of a lifetime in not setting up a committee of lady P r^ cl " pals of our gii'ls’ colleges and high schools, to inquire and satisfy this country whether our girls’ education is on sound lines, and in keeping with modern requirements, because when we come to think of it we find that one of the great outstanding features in midern life is the emancipation of women during recent years.” The Hon. H. Atmore (Minister of Education): “The Commission took evidence from lady principals.” Mr Burnett: “But not a word is embodied in the report. There is a body of opinion growing up in tnis country that the education of our girls is not on sound lines, and that it has a strong tendency to send these young women into lines and vocations that are not fitted for the true development of woman’s character and woman s chief duty. It is an amazing fact when we consider the great growth in the number of women in public administration, commercial and clerical occupations. In 1911 there were 18,800 so earning their living. In 1921, the number was 34,600, in 1926, the last census figures available, it was 35,600; and on the basis of the population increase since the 1926 census, the number of women so engaged should I be somewhere between 36,000 and I 37,000. I do not think that there can i be* any more pitiable spectacle, from a Dominion point of view, than the numbers of these young women. They are quite within their rights, of course, in earning their living as they think fit but from the Dominion point of view, it is not good. They are thrown out much earlier on the industrial scrap-heap than the men; and it is not in the interests of the Dominion, from a national point of view, that there should be such an increasing stream of young women entering into competition in many instances with men in earning a living. Some extraordinary instances of the fierce competition so engendered have come under my notice. Cases such of a man in a well-paid Government billet, with his wife holding an office position returning £5 a week, and a daughter earning £2/10/- a week; while there are thousands of young men and young fellows of good education tramping the streets looking for work.” “Buy New Zealand Goods.” “Another point that I am at issue with the Government on,” Mr said, “is that Ministers have constantly

been preaching the duty of all and sundry, including the Government, to buy New Zealand-produced goods. I have down in my chief town, Temuka, an up-to-date insulator factory, erected and equipped at a great cost, and it has this inestimable advantage that it possesses a most up-to-date chemical laboratory, electrically equipped for the testing of insulators and cups for power lines, transmission lines and such like. It can employ, and has employed, 75 men, most of them highly technically skilled, and their work has been submitted to some of the highest tests insisted upon by the Post and Telegraph Department. But the extraordinary thing is that, notwithstanding these very high tests, and the work these cups and insulators have come through with flying colours, the Department refuses to avail itself of the New Zealand-produced article, and imported last year 90,000 Post and Telegraph insulator cups.” The Hon. P. A. de la Perrelle (Minister of Industries and Commerce): “I might inform the honourable member that the matter has been before the Industries and Commerce Department, and a fairly substantial order has already been placed with that firm.” Mr Burnett: “Yes, but the point is that here is a factory thoroughly up-to-date, highly equipped, and with the last word in laboratory equipment, and the Post and Telegraph Department alone could keep the factory running full time, but at the present time a number of men are being dismissed, and going on the roads looking for work, and in these times we are taxed to help these men, who could be fully employed by that Department. The Department did such a stingy thing as this: There was an oversupply of cups to the extent of 11,000 manufactured by this Company, and, while it cost the company l/3i each to produce those cups, the Government offered a niggardly, or shall I say, a measly price of 4id per cup. What on earth is the use of asking this country to support loyally its New Zealand manufactures? The Government should set an example by practising what it preaches.” Land Settlement Policy. With respect to land settlement, Mr Burnett proceeded, undoubtedly the chief cause of the land settlement failures was the tremendous overhead cost involved in establishing a settler on a farm. “Take,” the speaker said, “the average Canterbury farm of 300 or 350 acres, for instance. In order to start a farm of that kind, it will cost anything from £6OO to £IOOO straight off in the purchase of a team or a tractor, and various other plant, apart altogether from the stocking of the farm. That is the sort of thing that is going a long way towards making a consistent failure in the settlement of large estates broken up for sub-division in Canterbury and Otago of recent years. Apart altogether from the low prices we are receiving for our produce at the present time, land settlement will be a consistent failure unless something is done to bring it more in keeping with the altered conditions that we are facing. I would suggest that in the land settlement of the future the main hope of success —I am speaking more particularly of Canterbury and Otago districts—lies in working in with the country towns. Most of the land round those country towns is practically the pick of the district, because, in the first instance, it was the rich land that made settlement possible and evolved the towns. In the midst of those areas there are all the conveniences of civic life, such as drainage, lighting, water supply, and so on, and by winning the goodwill of those country towns, and compensating them for the magnificent highways that have been built, which, by the way, are robbing them of their custom, which is now going to the big towns, we will go a long way towards making the land settlement in small areas a success in the immediate neighbourhood of those towns. Although this may appear fanciful, the fact remains that in connection with land settlement, we must introduce a greater and greater degree of co-operation respecting this matter of excessive overhead charges at the outset. The extraordinary thing about it is that this plant and equipment necessary for working a 300 to 350-acre farm is quite sufficient to work an area of 1000 acres, and one of our main hopes of holding our own in world competition, is big scale farming operations co-operatively worked by a group of six or eight men under Canterbury and Otago conditions, where one plant would very largely be sufficient for a group of farmers. Such farm implements as small mills, binders, drills, and so on, should be cooperatively owned. Associated sheepfarming also would go a long way towards solving the problem of securing supplies of young sheep to supplement our flocks every year. Those are the lines on which this country will have to work in regard to land settlement. There must be more and more cooperation. To-day, thousands of men will consider it fanciful and unworkable; to-morrow, altered conditions will smash us into it.”