Return To 44-Hour Week Suggested

Wanganui Chronicle, 19 December 1950, Page 6

Return To 44-Hour Week Suggested

WELLINGTON, Yesterday (P.A.). —The fight against the rising cost of living would have been assisted materially by a temporary return to tjie 44-hour week and the limitation of Government spending to absolute essentials until such time as shortages had been overcome, said the chairman of the Wellington Stock Exchange, Mr. P. W. Blundell, in his address to the annual meeting today. “To the extent that we have failed to do these things and have at times failed to give of our best, so we must suffer the evils of inflation,” he said. Referring to share market activity, Mr. Blundell said that New Zealand had had a prosperous year and this, had been reflected on the Stock Exchange. Turnover was fully maintained and movements in prices had been narrow’er than had been the case overseas. A feature of the year’s trading had been the great number of new issues of share capital, he said. Further issues can be expected not only because of normal expansion but because raw materials and costs generally were now on a much higher level.

Generally speaking, company profits and dividends had shown a slight increase but when considered in terms of present-day values, they were actually lower then they were only a few year* ago.