MILK AND MOTOR CARS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 129, 3 June 1930, Page 7

MILK AND MOTOR CARS.

NEED FOR. RETRENCHMENT.

PRIME MINISTER'S FL2VN

WELCOMED.

VIEWS IN DUNEDIN,

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

DUNEDIN, this day,

At the annual meeting of the Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Society Mr. James Begg said the statement of the Prime Minister, Hon. G. W. Forbes, that he was determined to retrench should be welcomed by everyone who- had the interests of the country at heart.

"The production of farms in New Zealand lias increased phenomenally in recent years," lie added, "and it can be still further greatly increased, but if farming becomes unprofitable owing to falling prices or to expenses being kept at an artificial level production will inevitably decline. "Milk pays for tlie motor cars, silks and furs which are seen in our city streets. It pays the interest on our debts and is the basis of our credit. The men, women and children who produce it are on the average the hardest worked and worst paid people in the Dominion. This position is wrong and should be righted." The speaker said he believed the lower level of prices has come to stay. To meet this lower level he suggested that borrowing outside New Zealand should cease absolutely, that drastic 1 eductions in the public expenditure be immediately effected, and that compulsory arbitration be abolished. Sir John, Roberts also thought that Mr. Forbes was to be congratulated on speaking so plainly on the shortage of revenue. Too many politicians refrained from telling the honest truth in the way he had done. To his mind the best way of getting over the difficulties indicated in Mr. Forbes' statement was by increasing the country's exports and I maintaining the closest possible supervision of expenditure. He had been 62 years in Dunedin now and could remember periodical experiences of the kind with which New Zealand was confronted to-day. Curiously enough periods of depression came in 10-year cycles. Referring to the wool industry," the speaker said that better conditions /had Jjcen forecasted from London.