WAGES AND INDUSTRIES

Hokitika Guardian, 9 April 1927, Page 1

WAGES AND INDUSTRIES

(Christchurch 1 ‘Press.’’) The Bulletin oil wages and wageearners which was issued recently hy the Economics Committee oi tho Chamber of Commerce ended on a note which has hcen frequently heard of hue. The point was made that "it is diHiculh to see how the unsheltered industries, receiving prices only about pi per emu above pre-war level for l heir products, can allord to buy at present prices their usual quantities ui‘ goods produced by the sheltered industries,” and ii was added that the question raised "large and important issues" one of which was the soundness or unsound ness of our present arbitration procedure. ’ brum the early days of the Arbitration Act it lias often enough been said that the real test of the usefulness of the Act would come when the country encountered a. spell of economic depression, for various reasons the Dominion has enjoyed a wonderful spell of prosperity tor the past thirty years, broken only twice before to-day. and then only for short periods which ended belore people had begun anxiously to question tho effect of the Act. The Bulletin contains data showing very clearly the inequitable working of the tariff and wage arbitration systems of this country, although flic authors have postponed a definite pronouncement miiil their next two Bulletins. The first part of the current Bulletin, dealing with the distribution of the people hy occupations, shows that nearly a third get thenliving from primary production. 'I lie actual wages paid to country workers have not risen hy so much as the wages paid to the urban workers, hut the farmers are loaded with the high prices for all commodities resulting from the tariff and the wage-raising Act workS ng in conjunction. Xor can tliev, being unable to control the prices the world will pay for the produce they export, pass on the cost or * production as others can. j We (lius see the monstrous mam-cr in which the dice have been loaded against the farmer. His increased production costs means that he is contributing towards a tariff that enables the sheltered producer to pay a wage that lias no real relation to the efficiency of his industry. l*°r t,ie farmer, selling most of his produce abroad, there is no prospect of passing on his increased working costs. This makes ii impossible for him to pay high wages, and a result is a drift, to the towns, which as the Bulletin suggests, is a cause of the piesent- unemployment problem. -j no remedy for this perilously lopsided development- of our industrial system is obvious and simple, but we ale for the present compelled to listen to Cabinet Ministers talking about the inevitability of seasonal unemployment and to submit to the spectacle oi a Tariff Commission gravely collecting data, about infants’ food and pneumatic tyres.