MAY BE LIFTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 28, 3 February 1939, Page 8

MAY BE LIFTED.

IMPORT REGULATIONS,

WHEN LOANS ARE REPAID. MR, BARCLAY'S STATEMENT. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WHAXGAREI, this day. J When tlie £17,000,000 which fell due at Oho end of the year was saifely negotiated there would probably be a lifting of tlio import restrictions, said Mr. .T. G. Barclay, M.P. for Mitrsdcjii, when addressing a public meeting here last night 011 the import regulations. t Mr. Barclay outlined the steps that had led up to the reduction of the sterling reserve in London from £40.000,000 to £7,000,000 or £8,000,000. The figure at the end of the' depression was abnormally high, he said, owing to many firms having kept money in New Zealand in the hope that they would profit by the lowering of the 25 per cent exchange rate and through other causes.

It was not the Government's policy to increase the national debt, but rather to reduce it. Other Governments had met due loans by raising other loans and handing 011 the burden to posterity. The result had been that the previous Government had increased the national debt by £54,000,000 in nine years. The' Labour Government, however, had reduced it by £5,000,000 in its three years of office.

It was necessary, however, to have a, substantial reserve in London with which to approach the moneylenders, he said. New Zealand's defence programme would also depend largely on the existence of a satisfactory reserve in London.

Answering n question put to him by a boot manufacturer's agent, who happened to lie in' the audience, Mr. Barclay said that as fat as was possible locally-produced goods would be used; Where this could not be done, -however, importations would be permitted to fill the-breach.