CONDITION AFTER THE WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 150, 25 June 1918, Page 6

CONDITION AFTER THE WAR.

ECONOMY AND PRODUCTION. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON', Monday. The business community" .in .by no means disposed to accept Mr. Harold Bcauchamp's review of after-war trade prospects as the. last word to be said on the subject. Other financiers of equal standing with the chairman of the Bank of New Zealand Board of Directors, while admitting the value of the lessons of history, contend . that Mr. Beauchamp has no sound ground for bis assumption that the dark days which followed upon the Napoleonic wars of a hundred years ago must be repeated after the world's waT now raging. Trade and commerce and linanee, they submit, have been revolutionised during the century, and the resources of all the nations have 'been enormously increased. The deduction Irawn from the bitter experiences of ISIS must, be extensively modified by the conditions of 1918. Strict economy and increased produc-

Strict economy and. increased production, Mr. Beauchamp's critics go on to say, are safe and desirable things to preach always, but the economy must not stifle enterprise and the increased production must be the fruit of judicious expenditure. War prices have placed the majority of the producers in a much stronger financial than they were four years ago, and with good .prices for meat, wool, and dairy products assured for some years to come yet, war or no war, they should be encouraged to extend their operations, and the Government should continue to place more and moTe men on the land under the best possible conditions. This, they e.mpbasis'e, is not a time for pessimism, but for consistent well-directed effort, and a courageous belief in the future of the country.