USEFUL INDUSTRIES ONLY SHOULD BE RETAINED IN N.Z.

Wanganui Chronicle, 4 November 1950, Page 3

USEFUL INDUSTRIES ONLY SHOULD BE RETAINED IN N.Z.

“To retain industries that will benefit the people of New Zealand should be the first plank of good government,” declared the president (Mr S. J. Sullivan) at a meeting of the executive of the Wanganui Employers’ Association. Mr Sullivan said that on March 31, 1950, there were 22,299 vacancies tor factory labour. This illustrated the unsettled demand for labour, which had been the chief factor in the continual rise in wages and the increase in the unit cost of production, and had been the principal cause of the spiral of inflation. “This immediately demonstrates the wisdom of retaining only such industries that can be efficiently and economically managed,” said Mr Sullivan. He said that the decentralisation of industry so as to use all available labour was, in its primitive days, a good thing, but when industry increased and the demand for labour was greater than the supply, it defeated its own ends. Mr Sullivan said there was a move to set up special industrial areas, but, he warned, only essential undertakings should be permitted to start. There were many establishments in the Dominion that called for support and encouragement. Mr Sullivan submitted figures which he claimed showed that the Dominion was over-industrial.sed. Only by closing the uneconomic undertakings and preventing the establishment of others of a non-essential character could the position be controlled. Over-industrialisation meant that available labour could dictate and choose its own terms of employment. “Our free way of lire will prosper under private enterprise if we aim at industrial activity and distribution that meets with consumer acceptance,’ said Mr Sullivan. “This can be established and maintained to the mutual benefit of every member of our nation.”