WHAT THE COUNTRY NEEDS

Hokitika Guardian, 13 December 1930, Page 7

WHAT THE COUNTRY NEEDS

(Auckland “Star”.) We have no wish to do Mr Goodfellow any injustice, but we can say without hesitation that ( very little comfort for the dairy industry or help for the country is to be got out of his adchess to the New Zealand Dairy Council. For his proposals would require a long time to produce any results; while the most important of his suggestions leaves the solid ground of economic discussion altogether and , transports us at once into the sphere of politics. We may point out first that an allround reduction in the expenses of public administration is a reform that of necessity involves a considerable period of time, and that in any case it must have the effect of throwing people out of work and so adding to the general burden of unemployment. Much the same criticism applies to the proposal to put the railways “under independent commercial control” ; with the added comment that it is very hard to see how this could abolish “the annual deficit.” For the comparative failure of railways is a general characteiistic o the present stage of the evolution of transport the world over, and the competition of other forms of motor traffic has at least as much to do with this as unbusinesslike or extravagant administration.

Take next Mr Goodfellow’s suggestions for a modification in our tariffs to meet the requirements of the dairy farmer. It must be borne in mind that our fiscal system is based on the conviction, firmly held by the majority of our legislators and the great mass of the people whom they represent, that one of the principal duties of Government is to defend the local producei against outside competition. Tf Mr Goodfellow had his way, the duties on “all dairy factory and farmer’s requirements” would he cut down, without regard to the interests of the workers employed in the local industries which supply these goods, or the capitalists who have invested money in them: and the duties on wheat and flour would also be reduced, regardless of the fact that wheat-growing is one of the few primary industries in the Dominion that can claim to be fairly prosperous to-day.

As to the existing system of Arbitration, the Employers’ Federation has repeatedly admitted that it ought to be retained. Our own conviction is that it represents' many important economic advantages to the whole community. In any case, Mr Goodfellow wants to see it swept away, for the express purpose, of “allowing a natural basis to he established” in regard to wages-r-in other words, he wishes to see the level of wages fixed simply by competition in the labour market. But there is not the smallest chance that- the people of New Zealand will revert to a system condemned by its disastrous and de* moralising social and economic Jesuits in eyery civilised country where wages have been allowed at any time to fall to an amount barely covering the cost of mere existence.

As to the request for a Coalition Goveminent, this is obviously, as we have said, a political matter. And,, having said this, we have covered. adequately the whole of the ground traversed in Mr Goodfellow’s address. There is much that is valuable and instructive in Mr Goodfellow’s comments on marketing. But s'o far as his main object is concerned, his address seems to us almost entirely inconclusive and ineffectual. On his own admission, the low price of our primary products is due largely to the world-wide fall in prices, arising out of causes beyond our control, partly to the competition of countries enjoying special advantages over us, partly to inefficient methods of marketing. If we take into account as well the effects of inflated land values and heavy mortgage charges, we can only conclude that Mr Goodfellow and his friends have vastly overrated the part played by labour costs and cost of material in the dairy farmer’,s balance-sheet, and that in any case the proposals that were submitted to the New Zealand Dairy Council offer no prospect of substantial or permanent relief to either the man on the land or to the whole Dominion.