LIVING COSTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1940, Page 6

LIVING COSTS

APPLICATION FOR HIGHER WAGES CASE FOR THE EMPLOYERS. DANGERS OF VICIOUS CIRCLE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. Mr D. I. MacDonald opened the employers’ case in the application by the New Zealand Painters’ and Decorators' Federation. in the Arbitration Court, for a general order to fix wages in industry. At the outset, Mr MacDonald emphasised that the resolution of the April conference between representatives of the employers and workers, recommending. as a temporary measure for the duration of the war and six months thereafter, that the Court be authorised to amend the wages provision, must not be taken as a recognition by the- employers that there was any justification for increasing wage rates. The resolution merely recognised the possibility of the necessity of increasing or decreasing wages by general order. Mr MacDonald emphasised New Zealand’s dependence on primary production. He put in statistics showing the relationship of wages ' added value in factory production. He said the factory added value figures did not take into account labour costs incurred in the production of raw materials or in the distribution of the finished product. If these additional costs were included the seriousness of the cumulative effect of a general increase in wages on costs and prices would be appreciated. Past experience had shown that a vicious circle of rising prices resulted from increasing wage rates in accordance with cost of living figures. The workers' request was based only on cost of living, but the Court must take account also of economic and financial conditions affecting trade and industry and all other considerations the Court deemed relevant.