INCREASE BUYING POWER

Chronicle (Levin), 11 July 1947, Page 5

INCREASE BUYING POWER

-Press Association

Farmers' Viewpoint On Claim For Wage Rise

Bv Telearavh-

WELLINGTON, July 11. The submission that the. interestls of workers would best be served not by inGreasing wa-ges, but' oy increasing buying power, was made • by Mr. A. P. O'Shea in a statement 'to the Arbitration Court, on behalf of Federated Farmers of New Zealand, on the question of the application for a general pror nouncement on wage rates. Mr. O'Bhea said the present inflated currency was making it more and mqre difficult for Workers on ne lower incomes to make ends meet. Any further inflation must make this more difficult. The amount of„ wealth produced from the land in New Zealand was decermined by costs, and if costs decreased there was a v considerably greater chance of much more increased production than at present. The present method of printing, money to finance Government activities pushed up the prices of goods and services, increased taxation and diverted a large • proportion of national effort into unproductive channels, he continued. It was a concealed tax on workers' earnings, because it was being used to provide assets which were lent at a rate not in line with their real cost. For instance, every occupier of a State house was being subsidised by other workers since he was getting the use of that house for less than it was commercially worth. Mr. O'Shea pointed out that farming produced the great bulk of the Dominion's wealth. New Zealand was very poorly endowed with the raw materials necessary for- the foundation oi most secondary industries. Apart ' from . the raw materials provided by farming there was almost a complete dearth of raw materials such as were found in most countries where manufacturing industry was a large factor in domestic economy. Without exporting the 75 per cent. of the primary production which New Zealand could not eonsume it Would be impossible to purchase these raw materials abroad.