ECONOMIC CRISIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 182, 4 August 1930, Page 7

ECONOMIC CRISIS.

AUSTRALIA'S PLIGHT.

DEBT, UNEMPLOYMENT,

STARVATION.

STRIKE ON RELIEF WORKS.

(By the "Star's" Special Representative.)

SYDNEY, July 24,

While the Prime Minister, the State Treasurers, and the managers of the various banking institutions, including the chairman and governor of tho Commonwealth Bank, were consulting with Sir Otto Niemcyer as how best to placo Australia's finances in order, and. talking in millions —nay, hundreds of millionsthousands upon thousands of Australians were "on the walk," which is to say, looking for work. It is now conservatively estimated that there aro at least 200,000 unemployed in tho Commonwealth. That means the- loss of from £40,000,000 to £50,000,000 a year in wages. Add to this approximately £10,000,000 less paid out to the workers as a' result of wage cuts, and it can readily be understood how (grievously the purchasing power of the community has been depleted. Now, here wo have started in motion a vicious circle; for the lower the purchasing power, the slacker tho trade. The slacker the trade, the loss employment again. Tho circle can narrow until there is created a vortex of economic confusion, with panicky banks calling in overdrafts and businesses goiiig bankrupt. That stago has been reached in Australia, and although we are assured that tho worst is over, we seem to be standing on tho shoulder of a very desolate hill. If we are ready to be comforted, we may take heart in tho fact that complete arrangements appear to have been made to save tho country's credit abroad, and that tho hungry-giant has been patted on tho back by the moneyleuclcrs of London, who have indicated their readiness to advance him £30,000,000 on "favourable terms," with which to pay the interest on what lie already owes. Well, another trip to tho pawnbrokers may ,tide us over, and wo may yet be able io redeem the blankets.

Debauch of Extravagance. Truly Australia has a formidable load of debt. In the last decade there- has been a veritable debauch of extravagance, by which the public debt of Commonwealth and States has increased by the immense sum of £400,000,000 to an aggregate of £1,000,000,000, while the annual interest bill has grown from £25,000,000 to over £55,000,000., Thank heaven the whole of that interest does not yo abroad, for a great proportion of the money has been borrowed in Australia, and there may be consolation in the fact that some £400,000,000 of the Commonwealth's share, of the debt was incurred in war expenditure, or in expenditure consequent on the war! There are people now bitterly reviling those who would not lister to "Billy" Hughes' demand that Germany should repay Australia every penny she incurred through crabbing the gun "in defence of civilisation." "Billy" surveys the scene of chaos now (so miraculously long dclayedynd fiendishly mutters^y^ Some' newspapers are accentuating the "loom. Suicides arc starred, and it is the newspaper fashion now to.attribute all suicides to unemployment. One paper this morning ran a panel with the heading (a la "The Bridge of Sighs"), 'Ono More Jobless Gone to His Death — although there was not one word m the report of the case to indicate that the victim had been unemployed, or even that ho had committed suicide. The body wns found floating in the harbour. It was that of a well-dressed man, and it is significant that there were many needle punctures.on each arm, suggesting that morphia, and not unemployment, was the motive for self-destruction—it it was a case of suicide, and not accident.

"Agin the Government." Anyhow, it's all "agin the Government." The Commonwealth Labour administration is most bitterly upbraided for not doing "something" (it has just released a second sum of £1.000,000 to provide work for tho unemployed), and the Nationalist State Government of New South Wales is attacked with absolute ferocity. But then, the Bavin administration has been unpopular for quite a long while.

There are numerous cases of terrible distress, and there are still those who would die before they would beg. Doubtless some do—either by their own hand or from illness and worry consequent on unemployment and want. All is not well in the State of New South Wales— or in the Common Tea Ith of Australia.

And yet, what have we? Over 1000 men employed by the .State Government on relief works wont on strike yesterday —on tho day after they started work! Aβ to their rights or prongs I shall, express no opinion. Let's be'in the! falhion and bW the Government J >