NEW ZEALAND'S CREDIT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 126, 31 May 1938, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND'S CREDIT.

Recent reports from London indicate that stockbrokers and others assert that the fall in the prices of Xew Zealand stock is due to projected social legislation in the direction of health and superannuation service." It is necessary for us to remember that stockbrokers are directly interested in creating ups and downs on the sharemarket, their object 'being to make such an appeal to the cupidity of their clients as will result in extensive dealing. Any report, therefore, which will cause a movement in prices is naturally encouraged by sharebrokers. The true facts are that New Zealand's credit in London depends not on national provision for the aged and the infirm, but first on the quality and quantity of Xew Zealand's exports to Britain, and secondly on the ability and willingness of the people of Britain to buy our goods at fair and reasonable prices. We pay our debts in London entirely with money provided by the people of Britain, who buy . our butter, cheese, wool, etc. It follows, therefore, that our credit in London could be damaged only by such a 'breakdown in sales of our produce as would result in a shortage of British money to pay interest on our debts in Britain, and that our credit must always be good so long as we pay by sending goods of the right quality and quantity to be converted into British money to be placed to our credit in London. New Zealand's credit has ■never stood higher than it does to-day, for the reason that her exports to Britain are of excellent quality and of a quantity more than sufficient to meet all debt charges, and for the further reason that no suggestion of terminating or decreasing trade with Britain has ever been made. It would seem, therefore, that New Zealand's credit in Britain could be injured only by the people of Britain themselves rejecting Xew Zealand goods or being unable to purchase them. There need never; be any failure in the supply of our goods, and John Bull would never be foolish enough to refuse to buy them while we remain in his debt. W. J. GATEXBY. »