"NOT A SOLUTION."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 290, 7 December 1932, Page 17

"NOT A SOLUTION."

HIGH EXCHANGE RATE

AUSTRALIA'S LESSON. BOUNTY PREFERABLE. " (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. Sir. J. Fletcher, head of the Auckland branch of the Fletcher Construction Company, who returned from Australia by the Marama, was definite in his belief that a high exchange rate has by no means solved Australia's farming and unemployment problems. Hβ considers the position there very unhealthy. On the other side of the picture he spoke of the wonderful development in the exploitation of the mineral resources of Australia, and said there was a wide field for such development in New Zealand. Building in Australia was at a very low ebb, said Mr. Fletcher, but Melbourne presented a contrast with Sydney. Several big buildings were in course of erection, chiefly office Mocks. Adelaide was much the same as Sydney. Mr. Fletcher said wheatgrowers in South Australia who discussed the problems of protection with him admitted candidly that they would be better off with a straight-out bounty than with the exchange premium on the prices of products. The opinion was widely held that it would be better if many uneconomical industries were discontinued altogether instead of being enabled to exist by protection. He was strongly of the view that an 'increase in the exchange rs,te had not solved Australia's problems, and it certainly would not be any palliative so far as New Zealand was concerned. The position in Australia was probably just as unhealthy to-day as at any time in the. country's history, in that the employment problem was being met by means which mnai ultimately be the country's undoing'; ■"' Mineral Production. Speaking of the great development for the production of mineral wealth, Mr. Fletcher said the number of men so employed in Australia was an outstanding fact that should be an inspiration to our legislators to apply the same methods. A special board had been set up in the Commonwealth to sponsor mineral development, and this board was applying itself particularly to brown coal deposits, with a view to the extraction of fuel oils.