The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1931. FINANCES AND PRICES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 259, 2 November 1931, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1931. FINANCES AND PRICES.

.For <fte eetwe *Ao* Zacfte <wsw*an<*, For tfte wrong that needs resistance, Fot the f , Attt r i ;j* di*t<itic*t And the good that we ce» da.

A statement of the country's financial position at the end of the first six months of the current financial year "was gazetted on Saturday, and it does not make very cheerful reading. The' Hon. W. Downic Stewart, commenting on the returns, has pointed out that in some important particulars the public revenue has fallen below the estimates, whereas expenditure is likely to reach the level anticipated. Comparing these results with those recorded for the first half of last year, we find that the deficit has increased by over £900,000, and though this falling-off may be remedied within the next six months, the position is by no means satisfactory at present.

Of course, the whole situation may be radically changed for the better at any moment by the operation of forces outside our own direct control. As the Minister of Finance said on Saturday, a rise in export prices would make a vast' difference to our financial prospects, and it is a great satisfaction to be able to record a definite upward movement in two of the world's most .important markets to-day. President Hoover, has just drawn attention 'to the sudden rise in cotton and wheat, and the great activity in the American wheat market is accepted as a most favourable omen for American financial and industrial prospects in the near future. The restoration of public confidence is really all that is needed to speed up the mechanism of production and distribution throughout the world. So far as our own export trade is concerned, this dej>ends chiefly upon, the purchasing power available in Britain, and it is most encouraging to learn that the revival of trade and industry initiated at Home by the abandonment of the gold standard continues to manifest itself on a constantly extending scale.

But while the prospects of trade everywhere depend chiefly on a general rise in prices, it is clearer than ever to-day that such an increase in the returns to industry, if it is to have the desired effect, must not be confined to any one place or commodity, but must be virtually universal in its scope and influence. The only change that could prpdu'ce such a result in all markets at once.would be a general increase in the volume of currency available for the purchase of goods, and thus we are driven once more to the conclusion that the only prompt and radical cure for the existing world depression is international co-operation to expand and regulate the world's purchasing power. ' The truth of this principle is now generally -recognised, the mechanism that makes such co-operation possible is already in existence, and the present-close and sympathetic" financial relations between Britain, France and America have brought the civilised world closer than ever before to the point at which joint action between the Powers can remedy at a stroke the worst of the economic evils that we now endured