CLAIM FOR WAGE RISE

Chronicle (Levin), 15 March 1949, Page 5

CLAIM FOR WAGE RISE

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Coitfl Askerf Mafee New Pronouncement \

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i WfifcLfNGT&N; Mstreh 15. Contendittg tfiat tlie eeoiiomic positioif of New Zealand was mostf avoufable and would continue so urovided a larger share of the purchasing powerr was placect in the hands of the workers, the New Zealand Federation. of Labour begari1 its application for a new wagO ptonouncement in the Court Of Arbi-' tration tfiis morning. The claim for an extra 6d houi-ly iii standafd rates of pay was entered under the name of the New Zea-' land Federated Furniture and Related Trades Industrial Association of Workers. The secretary of the Federation of Labour, Mr. K. Mcl. Baxter, presented the case. Mr. Justice Tyhdall was on the Bench. The federation's s'ubmission'S were chiefly directed towards an exanfin--ation of the factors to which the court is reauired to have regard in

making. a standard wage pronouncement. A 77-page analysis of the general economic situation, trade tren'ds, monetary and financial factors, relative movements in income, the eost-^price strueture and the effect of the claim then followed. Mr. Baxter, discussing the gerieral economic situation, said that what the federation had said ton this score in 1945 and again in 1947 large^ held today. The usual statistical indices oi industrial prosperity continued high, he submitted, .and business profits had reached record levels. Overall production was well above

xpre-war. The export market was largely protected by bu'k purchase agreements and by the continued •world needs for the products New Zealand supplied. OVerseas assets were high, altnough the overseas debt had been substantially reduc'ed, Revenue from taxation had amply covere'd Government expenditure, while -the current budgetary position was satisfactory in spite oi the disturbing effect of the exGhange depreciation. Also, the import position had improved substantially over the past two years, with a consequent improvement in the supply of available _ goods, Although this must be qualified by 'the statement that any shortagesof consumer goods which still might persist must bear more heavily on the wage earners than upon_ any other sections of the community. As usual in a post-war boom period, evideiice was available of an approaching trade depression, continued Mr. Baxter. The recent price break in the United States ha-d been so. interpreted by some observers, • but other and more official sources regarded it as more in the nature of a settling down process after spectacular price inflation. | The federation did not believe that a recession would occur for some time, said Mr. Baxter, but if it did its effects woul'd certainly be exaggerated and accelerated in !New Zealand if there was a shortage of purchasing power in the nands of the wage earners. Conversely, a greater effective demand' in the country would mitigate against any such effects. | A practical point in consideririg a re'duction in the United States price levels at present was the resultant improvement in New Zealand's own terms of trade With 1 America, and in terms „of the trade of the sterling area generaily. Such a development . would be oi immedlate assistanee in easing the World dollar shortage, thus supple.-; menting, as far as British and "European industry was concerned, the 'effects of th© European recovery programme. The hearing is .proceeding.