LORD BLEDISLOE'S ADVICE

Hokitika Guardian, 16 September 1931, Page 6

LORD BLEDISLOE'S ADVICE

NATIONAL WELFARE. MAINTENANCE OF STABILITY OF COALMUN.'TY.WELLINGTON, September 12. Stressing the fact that the day of big price margins between producer and consumer was past, and that the national stability could only be assured by co-operation between all ranks of industry and commerce to consider the needs of the consumer, his Excellency the Governor-General (Lord Bledisloe) emphasised at the commercial travellers’ smoke concert several important points bearing on New Zealand’s position to-day. “The world is topsy-turvy,” he said, "particularly in the sphere of industry and commerce. It is on days like these •that all that is best in the British race shows itself, and its incomparable backbone invariably proves its salvation. In a crisis it always displays those valuable qualities of equanimity, resourcefulness, practical human sympathy and constructive progress, ‘teinpora inutantur, nos et mutamur in illis.’ We must change with the times or be left behind in the race. This applies with overpowering force to modern trade. GN BRINK OF PRECIPICE. “It has 'become axiomatic that the economic .existence of this. -Dominion; depends upon the prosperity of .its primary producers. To-day they stand on the edge of a financial precipice, and- ( if they fall—but they won’t—manufacturing, trading and professional’ interests will alike fall with them. Th y can, and ultimately will, contribute more materially to their own salvat’on by better production, better organisation and more scientific methods. But for the moment their welfare is intimately wrapped up with the extent 'of •the benefit that the trading community can, without serious detriment to its stability, confer on the general community. The greatest need of* the day is ineontrovertibly the due reflection of the land and of the factory in their price as charged to the public, and this appl es with special force to such necessaries of life as food and clothing. DISCREPANCY TOO LARGE. “There is to-day no scope for any . large margin of trade .profit on such commodities. Any attempt to secure it, whether by individuals or trade combines, threatens the stability, not only of trade and industry, but of the whole fabric of society and ordered government. It should be borne in mind, moreover, that any serious lack of organisation or friendly-co-operation among different units of the same manufacture, or between farmers, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, may operate to the definite injustice of the whole body politic. “Politicians are often blamed unreasonably for"most •bjf-’-'the-country's ills, but the most difficult and insoluble problems that our modern statesmen have to face are due to conditions which trading and financial' interests, by better internal organisation,, call; larirelv ameliorate, if not. actuallyremedy, far more effectively than any Government can do. Indeed, governin'ntal intervention, although sometimes essential for the protection of the public, is often the least desirable method of solving economic problems. MUST SUPPLY NEEDS . “Not only is it, imperative to-day to, reduce substantially by better organisa- j tion the often too wide difference oi 1 commodity prices between product i j and consumer, but also to supply th j consumer with what he wants of good j intrinsic quality, v even if his wants appear unreasonable. Whether it be Jean bacon, whole milk cheese, soft wool 1 tin j clothing, Hat match-boxes suitable to , the waistcoat pocket, motor-cars of j high engine-power and good clearance, , well-tempered felling axes, or even J. bowler hats for women, the pub ittaste, if not obviousiv transient, should be religiously catered for. In these and other ways your skilful fraternity can effect a most valuable liaison Between producer and consumer to the .-advantage of both. f ......

HELP THE OLD COUNTRY. “Finally, in all your activities, I nTH-stly beg you to keep a ~sympathetic eye upon the Mother Country, now struggling in a morass of even greater trade depression than any of h r children. The present serious extent of unemployment in Great Britain is fatal to prosperity in New Zealand. The more that we in New Zealand can give employment to British workmen by steady demand for their output, the greater will be their demand for ours, and the less will be th gravity of unemployment in this Dominion. "You have my sincere sympathy in these days of trade depression, and my earnest hope that the clouds which overshadow your activities will ere long pass away.”