EXCHANGE AND FINANCIAL CRISIS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 15, 19 January 1931, Page 6

EXCHANGE AND FINANCIAL CRISIS.

In a recent article published in the "Star" the writer hinted that the five per cent premium on exchange on London was likely to increase soon, a forecast which has since been verified by the rise to 7J per cent. In Australia the exchange premium is rising still more rapidly and is likely to go etill higher, as is also the case in New Zealand unlese drastic steps are at once taken to put our financial house in order. The methods necessary to obtain this object were 'briefly but effectively outlined bv Sir Otto Niemeyer in the advice which he gave to the Governments of Australia—advice which fell on deaf ears. A correspondent points out the Tact that the exchange premium on London from South Africa only amounts to a fraction of one per cent, and te at a loss to account for .this difference. The explanation k very simple. In South Africa, I understand, gold is freely obtainable from the banks, and no restrictions are placed on. its exportation—in fact β-uch a policy would be suicidal in the case of a country which depends on gold exportation for its prosperity. If the same conditions prevailed in New Zealand exchange on London would- be juet as low.

Fortunately, the wisdom of Sir Otto Niemeyer'e advice seems to be apparently now more generally accepted. The necessity of reducing the cost of production is now generally recognised by the agricultural and pastoral industries which form the backbone of New Zealand. But while much, discussion has taken place, little hae been done in the way of giving practical effect to the remedy. The facts must be squarely faced. That an all-round reduction in wages must come sooner or later is now generally recognised by the working classes. A large and increasing eection also recognise that the doctrine that higher wages and shorter hours represent the "eirmmum bonum," under all conditions, must be accepted with limitations.

Even among the rank and file of the manual workers, especially the older heads, -who ought to be the wisest, there existe an important element which admits (though not always orvnly) that an all-round reduction in wages at the present crisis would be followed 'by an equal (or even greater) reduction in the coet of living and an immediate and great reduction in unemployment, and would' eventually be of benefit to the worker and the public in general. Everywhere this conviction eeems to be jaining ground; but so long a the great body of the voters oppose the advice given by Sir Otto Niemeyer, the voice of the prudent minority will be drowned by that "of the more ignorant majority—for it must be admitted that the great majority of the workers are not well versed in the lore of eocial economics. If these views are correct, it follows that the responsibility for the present financial crisis reets in a great measure on the workers themselves, and the remedy reste in their own hands. If matters are allowed to drift the result wilKbe disastrous, and that disaster will not be long delayed. Doubtless the lees sophisticated will in the course of time learn by experience; but experience, says an old proverb, k "a comb which Providence bestows on us aiter we have lost all our hair." —i* D. LECKIE.

Communicated to a world that is aching for gold that a boy at Kalgoorlie has "picked up" a nugget weighing seventy-eight pounds. One of those strong-armed GOLD. lads, no doubt, possibly related to the pirates of fiction who dash over rocky ground each carrying half a ton of golden ducats. Still, the lad's weight-lifting feat serves to recall other nuggets even more hefty This lad's nugget was only two feet two long, while the Hill End nugget found by Heffernan and Byers was taller than Byers and reached the bulging forehead of Heff. The mates were snooping round the hill one day, tired of its barrenness. Byers said to Heffernan, standing by a crack in the hill, "Vot does you say to putting a shot in dere, no?" "Yes!" said Heffernan. They put in a shot and blew a bit of the face away. Standing against the disclosed wall was a slab of gold' of the dimensions indicated. It was the beginning of great wealth for the pair, but particularly for Byers, who thereafter lived a life of great opulence and charity, ending up with exactly the amount he had in his pockets the morning he was born. Still, he had a good fling for his nugget. One of '>2 quaint things Byers used to do was to invite his pals home to dinner and give them nuggets as keepsakes. Many people possessed nuggets that Byers didn't give them. He used .to leave them scatt.red about his palatial house in Hill End.

You may Lave noticed that one of the greatest of British armament firms is undertaking to supply Spain with the largest order of big guns ever given, SENTIMENT. going to prove that senti-

ment must not etand in the way of business. It is conceivable that our friends in the yearn to be may be sloshed with shells having a British genesis and be bombarded by excellent British guns. Apropos the absence of sentiment in business, there are large placards displayed in Wellington beseeching Wellingtonians to "Come to Auckland!" The placards set out in just and touching terms the advantages any Wellingtonian would achieve by leaving. Wellington for the Queen City of New Zealand. There k an analogy between the guns for Spain made in England and the placard in the Empire City. At the foot of the advertisement for Auckland are the words "Printed in Wellington."

Southerners affect to believe that Aucklanders stroll about like tortoises, or rush like snails. A southern holiday maker complains that the footHARE AND path crowd going to work TORTOISE, is co slow on the heel that he was prevented from going somewhere to do nothing in a most irritating way. But perhaps, the southerner hasn't seen Auckland young men leaving work. While the young Aucklander will stroll with deliberate cas-ualness up a ferry •gangway, once at his destination jetty he will leap like a buck (often into the water). Those who are under thirty and do not leap into the water, race like Nightmarch for the buses, thus cutting out every chance grandma may have had of a seat. Occasionally Harbour Board officials watch the leaps and take action. Occasionally not. The difference between the go-to-work gait and the going home pace is the difference in that celebrated story of the tortoise and the hare.

Years a*id years ago when Merino wool was fivepence a pound and the •beet wheat in the world about two and sixpence a bushel Australians didn't say a INFLATION. word about inflation or

stability, and the -Australian generally scorned dross (more or less). The attitude towards wealth wae illustrated on a wharf at Port Lincoln, to which came a lordly commercial traveller with bags. There were no buses or other vehicles. The only other person besides the C.T. and M.A.T. on the wharf was a man in moleskins and a belt who was spitting in the tide. To this typical Australian the commercial traveller went. "If you'll carry my bags up to the pub," he said, "I'll give you -half a crown.' 5 The disgusted Australian pulled two sovereigns from the pocket of his greasy moleskins and threw them isi the tide. Then he went on spitting in the Pacific. The commercial traveller carried his own 'bags. •

Dear M.A.T., —The ram about the Basutu boy, N'marabi, painting the roof reminds me of the way the Fiji boy uses the paint 'brush. About two years ago I THE PAINTERS, was erecting a bungalow

just outside Suva, and while setting out the foundations I pnt a couple of carpenter boys on priming weatherboards. They fetched the paint pots and brushes from the ehed and set to work. Occasionally I would glance across to see that they kept going and everything seemed all right; they were working well. After about an hour I went over to say something to one of them, and then I received a shock. They were painting away good-oh, but had forgotten to put any paint in the pots when they started.. The fact that they , had no paint did not worry them as long as they went through the actions of painting. It is not often I miss reading your column.—Tops'l.

The queue of unemployed men were marching briskly along to their rendezvous to see what wae doing in the great world of work. A man and a woman stood THE JOB. on the pavement and watched the procession passing. The woman said to the man, "Go on, dad! You'd better join them; you might get a job!" The man said: "Oh, them, they're going too fast for, me!" THOUGHTS FOR TO-DAY. The profit of every act should be this, ehat it was right for us to do it.—Stevenson. # * # * There is nothing so restful as purpose.— t\ev. A. E. Whitham. * * • * Be as happy as you can, and don't be jiimindful that you are 'blessed with health.— , Dickene.