RECONSTRUCTION POLICY.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 April 1920, Page 6

RECONSTRUCTION POLICY.

INFLATED PRICES AND PROFITEERING. A SOUTHERNER'S VIEWS. "What of the Future?" was tlic title of an address delivered by Mr. J. A. Frostick, of Christehurch, to the Auckland Provincial Industrial Association. Dealing with the economic and reconstruction problems of the day he emphasised the point that there was a legitimate cost of production in respect to every commodity which should he sold upon a basis of such cost, and not upon that of the famine prices obtaining. In New Zealand, the working man represented nearly 80 per cent, of the population, and safeguards were wanted against the ever-increasing cost of living., Something must be done within the limits of impartial justice to stop the increasing cost, of commodities. Touching upon the danger of the existing method of price fixing, he stated that it was leading us headlong to national disaster. To set our house w order we must abolish class envy and hatred. The status of the work must be raised, and a better feeling brought about between the employer and the employed. The. only way to kill profiteering was by increased production. Mr. Frostick referred to the land problem and its famine prices, which constitute a danger io bona fide producers. The success of national industrial development, he said, depended upon the adoption of scientific methods. Atl imlnignitinn scheme had been promised in connection with the reconstruction policy, but through lack of shipping facilities desirjible immigrants were being attracted to other fields, and in their place the Dominion was getting undesirable Chinese and Hindoos. In conclusion, he stated that the solution of the economic problem rested with the direction of public thought into proper channels, and contended that the time had arrived when unqualified men should no longer be giver, a range of management, and when the cantains of industry must justify their claims to direct.