The Waikato Times. MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 1945 RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 22691, 20 August 1945, Page 4

The Waikato Times. MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 1945 RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS

New Zealand has promptly begun the great transition from a war to a peace economy. The change has found first expression in the removal of certain controls which will materially affect the tides of industry. Men and women will steadily move from employment dictated by wartime necessity to work of their own choice. Recognising that this movement will create many problems, the Government proposes to establish a National Employment Service to replace the present National Service Department. The objective is the efficient transplanting of labour on a large scale with as little disruption of the country’s work as possible. After six years of war it is not easy to grasp the full meaning of the change. It involves the abandonment of all that industry which Was engaged in the manufacture of equipment for the purposes of war and conversion to the production of consumer goods. Certain wartime production, such as food, coal'and hydro-electric power are as necessary for the purposes of peace as for war, and to ensure that such industries are fully staffed it is intended to maintain certain directive controls in the meantime. Fuel and power particularly are necessary to provide the means of finding full employment for displaced workers. There will also be a greatly increased demand for raw materials such as timber, cement, metals, plastics, paper and a thousand other goods that form the basis of peacetime industry The necessity of this reconversion is the most striking illustration of the wastage of war. For six years a great portion of the nations’ energy and wealth has been devoted to the purposes of pure destruction—to decrease rather than increase the poverty of the world. The plenitude of money and the scarcity of real wealth have shown the magnitude of the economic disaster. The creation of vast purchasing power was founded upon the intention and the necessity to destroy. It was part of the price which the United Nations had to pay to save the world from Axis domination. The immediate legacies are inflated purchasing power, shortage of goods and a heavy burden of debts. To steer a steady course through these difficulties will require statesmanship and public common sense. Public morale will perhaps be most important of all. The responsibility for reconstruction rests not upon governments alone but upon every man and woman. The final result will be according to the contribution made by the whole people. When economic difficulties loom large it will be well for everyone to look back on those dread days when the enemy was hammering at the gates of the citadel of civilisation. In those days the population individually swore to throw every ounce of energy and wealth into the scales. It was high morale that won the war and it will be high morale that will win the peace. The prize is worth the cost.