CURE FOR INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4532, 18 November 1930, Page 3

CURE FOR INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS.

SUGGESTIONS BY LEADER OF

OPPOSITION.

Equitable sacrifice bf all classes of the community and an expansion of industry were pointed out by the Leader of the Opposition to be real cures for depression and unemployment in his address at the Junior Reform League’s social at iMarton last Friday evening. “Wje arc facing difficult times, Iml il is not from any fault of our own. There is no use bucking, and no good purpose can lie served hv saying that everything is turning out all right,” he said. “The farmer is called the backbone of the country, and he undoubtedly is. If the farmer is prosperous, then everybody is prosperous. If the farmer is up against it, then everybody suffers. To-day the man on the land is up against hard times. Last year there was an enormous drop in our export value. To-day we are receiving only pre-war prices. That might be all right if the cost had dropped accordingly, but costs of production at present are <ls pier cent, above llinsc in 1 t)M. Those prices must be brought together. That is our problem. Until some effort is made io bring those prices together we cannot hope to get bac|k! to prosperous times. Wo must be frank. “My party believes in frankness, as against high-sounding assurances that we will weather the. storm,” said Mr. iG’oates. “Of course we will weather the storm, but not without sacrifices being made. My. party believes that those sacrifices must be made fairly and equitably; no one section of the community should he made to carry the burden, and you should send men to Parliament who will see that every section receives equal treatment.”

•Mr. Coates criticised the Unemployment Act passed last session. “There is an old Rangitikei man with us to-night who lias seeu the telephone come and the crinoline go out. He lias seen the advent of the buster and the disappearance of the bustle, and, above all, lie has seen the appearance of the poll tax —of the inauguration of the dole.” The Reform Party was as anxious as any to solve unemployment problems, but it desired to find a permanent solution. “The Government’s scheme is only a palliative, after all, and we have been striving for something really different. Wle recognise our duty. We have helped and we will continue to do so, but we believe that the expansion of industry, whether primary or secondary, is the only thing. The wheels of industry must be hastened so that the unemployed can he absorbed.”