The Wanganui Chronicle MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1941. THE TIED HAND.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 34, 10 February 1941, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1941. THE TIED HAND.

THE Prime .Minister can be given credit for desiring to promote a maximum war effort in New Zealand, but that should not cover the truth that a maximum war effort is not being made. It is to be assumed on the facts that Mr. Fraser has not a free hand to exercise in the matter. Mr. S. G. Holland, in his recent tour of the constituencies in preparation for the forthcoming General Election, has been asking some pertinent questions:— Will anyone say, he asked, we are giving 100 per cent, war effort while we refuse to let sawmillers cut timber on Saturdays for making soldiers’ huts, unless we pay them one and a-half or double time for all overtime worked? Can anyone say we are playing the game when our Government refuses to permit engineers to make farm implements to enable the farmers to produce foodstuffs for the brave people of Britain to eat, and to produce linen flax for building aeroplanes to defend dear old England? The short working- week is a boon to the workers so long as their security is assumed, so long as their money wages buy the same quantity of goods as before the working week was shortened, and when the same variety of goods are available to purchasers. The application of these three tests to the present-day situation, however, reveals that weaknesses exist and very serious weaknesses they are too. In the first place, the primary objective of shortening the working week was to cure the unemployment problem by spreading the work among more people, but unemployment is still a pressing problem and the solution is nowhere within sight. The reason for this is obvious enough, and unless present conditions are altered unemployment is likely to increase, despite the war. On what is this anticipation of increased unemployment based’’ Firstly, unless a business can make sufficient profit to pay the high ineonie-tax and the social and national security taxes and make a profit for those who risk their savings in the business, there will be no increase in the means of production because businessmen have no inducement to invest in capital goods, such as plant and factories. When to this state of affairs is added a shortening of the working week the profit possibilities of existing concerns are again reduced and they are unable to accumulate reserves of capital to be used in the purchase of new machinery and tools wherewith to expand the productive capacity of the labour employed. This second factor takes some time to work out, and in the meantime profits look good and spending continues; but for all that much of the work done is either paid at overtime rates or is delayed. The result is that costs mount up and shortages of goods occur. Those parents who have recently been equipping their children for school have found that children’s clothing has made marked advances already. For instance, the relative prices of a boy’s school outfit is as follows:-

The foregoing reveals clearly the extent to which the workers are paying for the shorter working week. They also reveal how the shorter working week is reducing the real wages of the workers, that is the goods that they and their families may now enjoy. Another obvious fact is that the variety of the goods available to the people of this Dominion has been reduced. This was due to the shorter working week and higher money-wage policy in the first place. Employees of local manufacturers can still recollect when their employment was insecure and broken because of the excessive inflow of imports. This temporary glut of imports, however, exhausted New Zealand’s overseas funds to such an extent that import restrictions by licence had to be imposed. The result was that the stocks of merchandise held within New Zealand had to be drawn upon and now these stocks have become exhausted. This is not the result of the limitations of imports due to war conditions, but to the exhaustion of stocks by reason of the import restrictions prior to the war conditions operating. With a population deprived of many things which were available under war conditions in New Zealand long after the outbreak of the 1914 war, with employment becoming increasingly precarious because of the deliberate discouragement of enterprise through high taxation and restrictions on production, with money-wages fast losing their value the people of the Dominion can hardly be expected to press forward with the war effort with enthusiasm. The general outlook of the Dominion is one of bemuddlement. Constructive.thought is required first, courageous leadership to point the way is demanded by the present situation, and then when the people see clearly their way they will gather an enthusiasm which will lift the war effort to a level not possible under the present conditions of frustration and industrial discouragement.

1940 1941 Jan. Jan. 1ncrease s. d. s. cl. per cent. Shirt .... 9 (1 10 6 16.6 Pants .... 10 0 11 6 15 0 School Hose 4 9 5 3 15.0 Shoes, size 2 .... 16 6 19 6 IS 0 Coat 39 6 42 0 6.0