PRESENT TRENDS ALARM

Chronicle (Levin), 11 April 1947, Page 4

PRESENT TRENDS ALARM

Industrial Sirife Retarding Country's Rrogr^ss If ithe -Labour -Governmeht broke down it wotfia -be in -eircumsrances orought about by itself. This was the opinion of -Mr. J. J. Mahar, M.P. for Otaki, when he spdke iast night at the annual meeting of the Levin branch of the New Zealand Natiional ' Party. No impartial observer of present trends and happenings in New Zealand., could fail to be alarmed at what was taking place in this couptry, he contended. " The technique of many sectiohs of industry was to take the nommunity ;by. ohe throaf and hold it to ransom and -choose, as the miners jdid, ,a. time when 'the greatest. possible number .of. -people would .be inconvenienced.

If tnings continued as they were going, the .alternatives .open to the. people of .the ©ominion were to continue to yield * or - else meet! aggressiom with aggression, .,pr at lesist with resistance. They shoifld5 demand that the Governmenh administer the law — and .strSk-es1 pt this nature were again'st the' law of the Dominion — impartially and fearlessly, even. if it did mean. losing votes. "A handful of workers are being permitted to hqld the '-country tto ransom. We say they should not he allowed to do it. When a group of naval ratings struck in Auckland recently the Government" was quick to show a strong hand. They were dealt with "on ,the >spdt. Why then does it not -show the same strong hand with the coal miners and wharf labourers? Why does it not' act on the same Iines' regarding the salvaging of the \Wanganella?" ' It was agreed by all that the ,Doal miners had a rigorous task., .tbut they had ;agreed ,tp the condittions and should -,abide by. them, icpntinued Mr. Maher. It was vwi'ong that they should be allowed to -disiocate the whole ,-Gountr.y. Coal was being imported into this counry which was rich with coal. He would not be surprised -if the next step would be the importa-' tion of butter and lamb into this country. At a time when people were planning a much earned holiday ;the coal miners had struck a *blowat the transport -system, though there was machinery set up for .arbitration. There was trouble iin Fngland, Australia, and New .Zealand, yet in countries such as 'Can•ada an'd South Africa, where there was no Labour Government, there were no such troubles. It was

=obvious that a change of Government in this country was imperative. "While we in New Zealand- should. be doing everything to -help Great' Britain, we are allowing production to be hamstrung by stupid strikes," declared . Mr. Maher. "Britain today finds iherself .in one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult, economic -positions in her whole history.'^ Last year Fritain had had a bad harvest. Then she had a winter ,o.f almosh unparalleled severity, which, togethei with the spring floods, had meant the foss of the greater. proportion of her autumn-sown' grain, and also of a large number df livestock. On the industrial •side. the troubles of coal and cold had greatly retarded production. Financially, this had meant agreat deal to Britain, which, in spite -of stepping -up -exports .and cutting down ' imports, was still failing-to make {ends meet to the1 extent of at least £350,000,000 a year. Apart from personal feelings, New Zealand ihad a yes.ted interest in Britain?s .economic welfare. In our own self interest we should see to it that Britain was assisted in her economic recov-' ery, and the continuance of imiport restrictions was not the way to do it. New Zealand had tto rdly 4on' Great Britain to .a great extent.. The United Kingdom was the only real market "we possessed tor the greater proportion of /our primary production, and iniCQnsequenoe our economic welfare -was -bound up with that of Britain. "It muSt -be ireallised that Britain today 4s -hard aip," conoluded Mr. Maher. "New Zealand ,has. recognised this by making the old' country a gift nf filO-OOOlOOO, ibutj with a prospective deficit of' £350,000,000 this ,is ,a mere drop in, the bucket. Britain today neads; help-r-financial, economic and physical. "We have made .a -start: with financial help. We can help economically by refusing to encourage inefficient industries to compete with Britp,in's, ,and thus havej the right to have her goods 'blocked out by import- control. Physi.cally .we can «help by seeing 'that,

Britain gets more food. Here we ?are -living in a land of plenty, fbut a aeotion nf the people are blo.cking supplies of food to this great country."