INCREASED PRODUCTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1919, Page 7

INCREASED PRODUCTION.

HOW BEST TO ACHIEVE IT. Under the auspices of the Wellington Central Chamber of Commerce, Mr. C. J. Ward opened a discussion the other night on "How Best to Increase Production." In the absence, through il|ness, of the president (Mr. C. M. Luke), Mr. Leigh Hunt, vice-president, occupied the chair, and there was a fair attendance. Mr. Ward said that his subject fell naturally under three heads—finance, repatriation, and reconstruction. If New Zealand was so prosperous at the present time as many people stated, he hardly saw the need for reconstruction; and so far as repatriation was concerned, he thought' that the problem that had to be met should only be that of finding suitable employment for the unfit men. The fit men were entitled to the jobs they had before the war, and they should get those jobs when they returned, no matter, who was in them now. There should be no two ways about that. (Hear, hear). It had been repeatedly stated that to meet their financial liabilities and hold their own with their competitors they must increase their production; and he agreed with that But, along with the increased production he wanted to see an increase in the welfare of the producers at the same time. (Hear, hear). The prosperity of New Zealand's primary industries during the past few years had been, he held, largely fictitious. It was due to an increase in prices rather than an increase in production; and the prosperity had been only for the few. (Hear, hear). For increased production in agriculture he thought that they must )■>;. to an increased number of producers rather than to increased production per head. In his opinion no specialisation could greatly increase production in regard to agriculture. In America they heard of great areas being devoted to the production of one article. But, without'aggregation, that could not be done in New Zealand; and they looked rather to the breaking-up of big estates than to aggregation, to more intensive rather than to more extensive cultivation. (Hear, hear). In regard to the mining industry lie thought that with Stateorganised scientific research there should be a great future before it; and he was glad to see that the question of scientific research was now being taken up. As to the secondary industries, it cost about £4OO per head to find employment for men in the secondary industries as against about £IOOO per head in agriculture. That was to say it took, according to the latest statistics, £3BO to provide employment for one person in the secondary industries, while to establish one man on the soil and enable him to keep himself employed cost £1545. In the secondary industries, also, increase, of production by specialisation was far more feasible than in the primary industries. Already, ho pointed out, the secondary industries employed more workers and produced more wealth jeach ye.i', than the primary industries. Taking, not the war figures, but the prewar figures, the twenty-two secondary industries already established in New Zealand were affected by imports to the extent of £16,000,000 a year. If the goods so imported were produced in the Dominion, 10,000 more New Zealand workers would be employed in producing them; and he estimated that after allowing for the loss of the Customs taxes, etc., on the goods now imported, the country would be richer by £2,000,000 a year besides employing the addilional 10,000 workers. Further, these industries would not, like the agricultural industries, bo subject to the vagaries of foreign markets. MORE HUMANITY NEEDED. Mr. Ward emphasised the need for better general and vocational education for the worker, the need for securing continuous employment for the workers, so that they should not be subject to fear that when they drew their Saturday's pay there might be no further need for their services. He knew from past experience what that fear was. They must also make more adequate provision for the worker in case of sickness. Generally, unless than were more humane in their treatment of the worker than they had yet been, they would not get anything like the increased production they desired. (Hear, hear). It was said that the worker should trust the employer, but the worker could not trust the employer in such mattera. The record of the employer was not such as to enable the worker to trust him. Unless, also, they cut down the huge cost of distribution in this country, the benefits of increased production would not go to th people as a whole (Heu. heari. A lengthy discussion followed, replying on which Mr. Ward said that he would compel the employer to take back his fit returned employees. As an employer himself, he recognised that he had made more during the war than he ought to have made, and he was quite willing to spend some of it in enabling returned employees to get sottled back into civil life. (Applause). They had compelled the men to go to the front, and they should not hesitate to compel employers to take back their returned men. (Applause). Reference had been made to professional agitators, but he held that labor troubles were not due so much to them as to bad conditions of life and work Thirty years ago people had condemn;;! the professional agitators just as strongly aa'they wore condemned to-day but in the interval it had been recognised that many of the things demanded by the professional agitators were right, and thoy had been carried out- To get increased production, they must improve the conditions of life and labor (Hear, hear) At the close a hearty vote of thanks was accorded the opener of the debate.

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