"GOOD TIME FOR ALL"

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 134, 8 June 1932, Page 9

"GOOD TIME FOR ALL"

MR. LANG'S FINANCE SCHEME. 21 MILLIONS OF 'DEBENTURES' THREE YEARS' RELIEF TAX. (Prom Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June 1. The one fragment of constructive policy which Mr. Lang submitted to his hearers in his policy speech wa3 a proposal to relieve the financial stringency by issuing £21,000,000 of "debentures" on the security of the next three years' receipt from the 1/ in the £ unemployment relief tax. The newspapers have ever since been deluged with comments and criticisms of this scheme. It is unconstitutional, because only the Federal Government can issue currency and legal tender in Australia; it is illegal, because New South Wales has agreed with the other States that no money can be raised by borrowing without consent of the Loan Council; it is impracticable, because no sane man would lend a repudiationist Government money on any security; it would mean inflation of the most disastrous type; and as the debentures would be useless for purchasing purposes the workers with everybody else would speedily be overwhelmed in the universal ruin.

People accustomed to treat the problems of public finance seriously regard this scheme as the fruit of Mr. Lang's ignorance and recklessness, and at best a "counsel of despair" that would precipitate the community to financial and economic destruction. Yet apparently thousands of Mr. Lang's followers believe that in this way he can raise £21,000,000, he can save another £36,000,000 by refusing to pay interest iu London; he can raise another £12,000,000 by his mortgage tax, which he intends to enforce if he regains power; and that' with some £70,000,000 at their disposal, as the "Sun" put it, "a good time-will be had by all."