SUSPEND AWARDS.

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 18244, 18 July 1931, Page 2

SUSPEND AWARDS.

ONLY FOR A PERIOD. Surest Step to Recovery. ATTRACTION OF CAPITAL. PROFESSOR'S ADVICE. "I feel as strongly convinced now as when the Industrial Conference met in 1928 that the surest step towards the permanent cure of unemployment and the adjustment of costs of production and of living to lower levels of prices would be the complete suspension—for a period and with necessary safeguards—of all Arbitration Court awards," ( said Professor A. H. Tocker, in an address on "Farmers' Finance," at the Farmers' Union Conference at Wellington. Professor Toeker said the situation involved some consideration of the recent heavy fall in export prices, of the relation between primary and other industries, of costs of production and marketing, and some examination of possible remedies. In New Zealand the first effects of the world decline in prices fell upon producers for export, but it also affected those goods sold locally whose prices were deternAied by export prices. Attract Labour and Capital. Anything that made farming more profitable, he said, would attract labour and capital to farming, expand production and exports, and increase the demand for goods produced by other industries. At present farming was so unprofitable that unless an improvement occurred men must be driven off their farms, production would be reduced, and the depression would become more severe. The problem therefore was to make fanning pay. There was much to be gained 'by increased production, and also by increased export prices, although the latter were beyond New Zealand control.

A high exchange rate was not the panacea for all their troubles. Production costs were too high, and a lower general rate of interest would recieve the country as a whole, but no lowering of the rates by Government interference was practicable. Compulsory reductions would shut off the supply of money, as capital was at once the most timid and fluid of all necessaries used in production. Most Important Factor.

Wages in New Zealand constituted half the national income, and were the most important single factor .1. production costs. The rates oi wages, however, were less important than labour costs in production, but it was impossible to maintain the same rates of wages for the same output and to provide full employment at a time when purchasing power had fallen by 20 per cent, or more. Either wages must be substantially reduced or output increased, or both. Output might be increased appreciably by improved organisation throughout industry, transport, commerce, etc. But organisation and cost reduction there were much hampered by the detailed regulations and conditions imposed under Arbitration Court awards and industrial agreements. It was only along the line of higher production and lower costs that the real remedy was to be found for the present situation, .said Professor Tocker. About ten years ago, when Europe was in a similar position to the present one, a British eeonom'st coined a slogan that was just as applicable to New Zealand as it was to Europe then: "What the world wants is hard work, hard thinking and hard money." New Zealand might well adopt that slogan.