WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 January 1931, Page 5

WELLINGTON NEWS

AUSTRALIAN COSTS.

(Special Correspondent)

WELLING I ()\, Januarv 20. Costs oi production m t|, e Cuiimionwealcli arc wry |,ign. Re,-fiaps more

so t-miii they were acre, aml l(> maintain the inflated wages and condition*

t .it toil’s expedients are being adopted, tin- iatc-sL proposal being ”i„fla.imi,’ ; and it seems that Lite “wild men” u 110 coiil l’ol the Labour Caucus and i Ik-re I ore every Labour Government will prove Loo strong In,- Mr ,Bcullm, "ho is no doubt anxious to take the tight course.

1 nat '-course was laid down by Sir

OtLo Niemeyvr jn Angusi. last, tic

c.uet poiiu ui 11 is recommendation wing mat Australia mimt adjust her

costs to conform witn the world level

oi prices. Incidentally it may he said that New Zealand must follow the

sumo course. ibe Australian Premiers accepted Sir Otto’s advice, but they only pretended to do so, for up to the present no genuine effort fins been made to reduce costs. On the contrary tfie Federal Government fins allowed matters to drift until now there fitm developed a positively dangerous drift. There, as in New Zealand the Arbi trillion system is held responsible for the difficulties that lie in the way of reducing costs, and some of the arguments against the system are much more cogent and caustic than any that have betm advanced in the .Dominion,

Thus one writer says, “Tho greatest, the dearest, the most fundamental property possessed by man is the right to his own labour. That a man shall have the right to fidl his labour in whatever market lie may se e fit. and whatever juice and under whatever conditions lie shall choose to accept, is the basis of all property. Our civilisation is founded on that base, known as freedom of contract. We in Australia have destroyed that I'oimdatfon and. like most structures resting on decayed foundations, our industrial and commercial life is coining to a state of collapse.”

'Pile writer points out that Labour Unions have become close corporations, thinking only of their own rights and bringing benefits to their members mostly at tHo expense of the general community. He might have gone further and shown that the officials of the unions, the secretaries and presidents nnd whatnot have engineered themselves so that, they possess autocratic powers. for the right of the worker to sell his labour is now vested in the officials. Those autocratic powers have turned their heads because they are not fitted for exercising those powers judiciously and humanely. But the workers themselves are to blame for ahroeating their rights to freedom of contract. They have succumbed to such a meaningless term as “scab” and a good many, perhaps the majority, have considered that discretion is better than valour and linve yielded up their rights without a struggle. Moral persuasion- has not been a conspicuous feature, for pickets have not ori occasions hesitated to use pickets and blue metal to enforce their arguments. At the annual meeting of the Australian Mercantile Land and Finance Coy., hold in London recently. Mr R. T-T. Call’d, who presided, presented a further view of Australian conditions. He said that the prime cause of the financial difficulties of Australia was the flow of borrowed money, But that was accurate in so far that flow rendered it possible to continue maintalnanre of the artificial fixing of wages according to the theoretical cost of living without any reference to what industry could afford to pay. The system of compulsory arbitration combined with the effects of an ever increasing protective tariff, was tfic root cause of the trouble, The system had not prevented strikes, and these in their turn hud mined among other things, the coal export trade, Had it not been for the flow of borrowed money the wages awards of the Arbitration Courts would have been shattered long ago by the insistence of economic forces that could not otherwise have been avoided. The extraordinary thing at the present moment (Mr Caird went on to sav) is that the very people who want to maintain the artificial standard of living are by their speeches and resolutions doing their befit- to damage Australia.” In nil the above w e get „ glimpse of Australian conditions—the I "causes and effects—mid it is worth the while of the community to examine our own conditions to prevent any such drift as is apparent in Australia. tV e too have the Arbitration with all it means.