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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 6, No. 11 August 11, 1943

Reconstruction

page 3

Reconstruction

"Plans for Post-war Reconstruction in New Zealand" was the subject discussed at the July meeting of the Social Science Section of the Wellington branch of the Royal Society. Mr. J. S. Reid, speaking in a private capacity, outlined the proposals which are at present being prepared, but their ultimate fulfilment, he stressed, would depend upon the political conditions of the moment. He discussed briefly the conditions which would exist in New Zealand itself and in New Zealand in the world at the peace—the problems of demobilisation, the change-over from war to peacetime economy, the labour problems, and the international contribution New Zealand would be expected to make in feeding the occupied countries.

Rehabilitation at home raised innumerable problems. Old peace-time skills would be partially forgotten; many men would have no skill in which they had received training. War-time appointments would terminate and employers would be bound by regulation to restore their pre-war employees despite changed conditions.

Transition

During the change-over it is proposed to continue special rates of pay to those who are temporarily unemployed and to provide all the facilities necessary for men to receive the technical training and education necessary to provide them with permanent work in the future. The temptation from the short-term point of view would be to provide temporary employment, but from the long-term point of view it is essential that the period of transition should be utilised to give men the chance to equip themselves for a permanent and not a blind-alley occupation in the future.

The long-term point of view is also essential for the restoration of a peacetime economy. The temptation of a post-war period is the immediate relaxation of war-time controls and rationing and the provision of commodities which the public has so long been denied. The disastrous effects of post-war laissez-faire after 1918 should be ample warning against such a course. It is essential that the production of capital goods should be carried out before the demands for consumer goods are met in order that the means of restoring peace-time industry and employment should be made available as soon as possible.

Planning

The period of restoration of capital goods can be utilised in retraining and in educating men and women for permanent peace-time positions and in restoring public utilities and public works that have been neglected for war-time essential industries and be cause of man-power shortages. Comprehensive housing schemes should be inaugurated and farm maintenance restored. To ensure the restoration of capital before consumer goods it will be essential to continue and probably extend war-time controls over industry, rationing and importation. Strict government control, increased cooperation between worker and employer, and long-term planning will be necessary.

As a speaker from the floor pointed out, the Government should acquaint the people of New Zealand with a full knowledge of the difficulties ahead and condition them to expect the continuation of rationing and controls. Well-organised Government [unclear: propa]ganda must be initiated before the peace is won and it is too late to convince the public.

Mr. Reid went on to discuss the necessity of placing disabled men in suitable work immediately—a lesson that had been learnt from the work done by returned men themselves after the last war. The treatment of psyconeurosis presented another comprehensive problem which another speaker from the floor emphasised, can only be successfully dealt with by proper expert care immediately available.

The international position would complicate internal rehabilitation. Specialised production to feed occupied countries, and the impossibility of acquiring necessary machinery from abroad might hinder the restoration of peace-time economy. From the international point of view Lease-lend offers a practical solution to the problem of providing each country with its essential requirements at the peace, the implications of which it is difficult to foretell.