SMÅLL SCALE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 68, 21 March 1934, Page 9

SMÅLL SCALE.

DOUGLAS CREDIT.

TRIAL IN LIMITED AREA. it SOME OTHER DOG FIRST." The suggestion that the monetary plan of the Douglas social credit movement in New Zealand should he tested out on a small scale on some island community other than New Zealand, was advanced at yesterday afternoon's sitting of the Parliamentary Monetary Committee by the Hon. W. Downie Stewart, M.P. for Dunedin West. On the ground that the scheme must operate in a mechanised community, where all powers of production could be released, the proposal was rejected by Mr. S. J. E. Closey, the representative of the association.

"What would be the smallest scale and community or group on which you could try out the scheme?" asked Air. Stewart. "I have this in mind: Your movement is a very powerful one, with a great deal of support. If it has enormous support, it 'has run through my mind that, to save these long years of controversy, if it is feasible to aipply the scheme on a limited area where the merits or demerits could be demonstrated without putting too much at stake, it sceinn to me the bust thing the movement could do. To put at stake the whole foundations of New Zealand to a policy concerning which there are such grave differences of opinion and schools of thought, seems to be asking a great deal. What community, or small island in the Pacific is there where, assuming you could make the necessary arrangements for indemnity against loss if the experiment proved a failure, yo'-i could try out the proposals? Would that be within the range of your purview ?

Mr. Closey: I am afraid not. Mr. Stewart: Samoa, Fij'i, Malta— some British Crown Colony?

Mr. Closey: The real aim is the releasing of all the powers of production we have in New Zealand.

Mr. Stewart: I want to put at stake something lees than New Zealand.

Mr. Closey: lam disappointed. I thought you would have had it tried in New Zealand for 12 months.

Mr. Stewart: That is your suggestion, not mine. I am apprehensive in view of tho statements of the schools of thought that it will lead inevitably to chaos. Mr.' Closey said his movement was prepared to allow the safeguards other schemcs had. Overriding Politics. Mr. Stewart: While you may set a limit under your scheme, is it not known that politics override arithmetical calculations, and if it were under political control it would expand from your original aims? Do you apprehend any risk of that? Mr. Closey: It appears that is not so dangerous as what is looming up at the present time. Mr. Stewart said the old complaint against all socialistic experiments was that they were never content to try out the scheme on virgin. soil, but to build i it up on the capitalistic system, or graft itself on to It.

Mr. Closey said his movement was trying to reiease the inherent wealth of New Zealand,/which it is thought was a colossal amount. If one took a simple island community there would not be much wealth to release.. Small Degree. "Some remedies are applied in a small degree," Mr. Stewart replied. "When a man constructs a shop he builds a model first.- As long as this remains a controversy it. will never be put to the test." Mr. Closey: If in the next 12 months it grows and grows in' New Zealand as it has during the last 12 months we will have to seek out the last men to be converted! Mr. Stewart: The issues at stake are enormous for the future welfare of New Zealand. Assuming, by any remote chance that you were wrong, what would you apprehend as the result? Mr. Closey: After having begun this injection of purchasing power in New Zealand, the national credit authority to be set up might put out too much money. The result would be a rise in the price level. That would cause some disturbance between the relationships of credit and debit that could be checked very quickly. We would give those safeguards. Mr. Stewart: The moment you found prices rising your controller of currency Would be swept out of office. Nothing would, stop that. Mr. Closey: If we cannot trust the people, then the world is a hopeless place to live in. History's Record. Mr. Stewart: The whole of history is strewn with the wrecks of attempts to control such a plan when it starts. What is the minimum size of a community in which your scheme could be tested out? Could it be tested out in Auckland without reference to the whole of the Dominion ? Mr. Closey: I am afraid not. Action must be taken within, the political area concerned. It would have to be taken in that area. Mr.' Stewart: You have a political area here. Mr. Closey; I am sure we would be very .pleased to issue all this surplus purchasing power. "On the Dog."

Mr. Stewart: In the United States when a play is to be presented in New York they try it out in one of the smaller States first. "Trying it on the dog" they call it. I want your scheme tried out on some other dog than New Zealand! . Mr. Closey: I have* not thought of it along those lines. Superficially, I doubt whether wo .can.. All the safeguards asked for would be granted, because I don't think they would be called upon. It has been said New Zealand has the highest sense oMit'zcneliip in the world. We have a natural sense of fitness. If any people in the world are ever to have control over tlieir currency, this is the place for it. Mr. Stewart: When: I tried to curtail borrowing gradually, myself and all of my partv were thrown out of office because the public was clamouring for more money. . • Mr. Closey: In that case they were suffering individual hardship. eo_ that collective hardship - might be avoided. Mr. Stewart: Tliey suffered hardship when they got rid of me. , Mr. Stewart's final suggestion to Mr. Closey was: You were a colonel in the army and I a lieutenant. Let us go Ito Kawau Island and, with you in ! cliar»e, let us start the scheme. Mr. Closey: There ifi plenty of amI munition there!