"BITTER FRUIT."

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 29, 4 February 1939, Page 15

"BITTER FRUIT."

LABOUR'S -POLICY.

RESULT OF HEAVY SPENDING. MR. HAMILTON CRITICAL. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Friday. "To make it obvious to every man and woman in New Zealand that the Dominion conference • of importers Mas not simply a political manoeuvre* aimed at discrediting the Labour Government, the National Party has deliberately withheld comment on the restrictions recently imposed," said the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. A. Hamilton, to-day. "Now that thp business community has stated its case, and now that a considered answer has.been given by the Government, no case can be prejudiced by some plain speaking by me. "There is 110 pleasure in seeing a prophecy of disaster fulfilled, but it is my • duty as Leader of the Opposition to state bluntly that the present financial crisis, coming as it does with remarkable swiftness after three years of the greatest prosperity, was forecast by the National Party ever since the Government took office in 1035.

"Now all thinking people must be alarmed at the Government's desperate expedient, disguised as policy, which it hopes will extricate itself from .its self-made difficulties," Mr. Hamilton continued. "This crisis was not inevitable. * The Labour Government produced it just as it was inDphesied tliey would. The one reason why the Government has been able to strave off the day of reckoning so long Is "because of the legacy left by the National Party—over £40 3 000j000 in sterling funds in London and various Government departments in credit. Those savings have dwindled to a mere nothing. Those credits have been dissipated and squandered. The Reserve Bank lias been drawn upon to such an extent that a danger signal has been hoisted. A crisis is upon us and it must develop inevitably. " Production Strangled." "To add to the tension the Labour policy ) has intensified the crisis by strangling production. Even export income is falling. The drastic steps the Government is taking to-day are to deal witli . effects, not causes. To remedy effects there -must be a reversal of the present socialist policy.

"To restore confidence' business must thrive and employment must be productive,' 1 said Sir. Hamilton. "Already men and women have been thrown out of employment. N lf the Government continues on its course more will bo forced out and those still in work will have to pay more to keep those who are unemployed. The bubble is then burst and the standard of living forced down. To reverse- this movement the war between capital and labour nuri tured by the Labour Government must lend.*

The employee must realise that his interests are irrevocably bound up with those of liis employer and vice versa. Every facility 'must be given to capital, both inside and outside New Zealand. Without absolute co-operation on sound lines there can be no founding of new industries or expaiision of those of today.

"There lias been no sudden emergency v to-day v Tlie Labour crop of spendthrift extravagance, sown, successively for three seasons, is being harvested. The Socialist* policy proclaimed by tlie Government, as 'spending its way to prosperity, onward J and upward.' The Government would not listen. The j prophecy is fulfilled. The Government seeks to save its life by desperate expedients and-the people are suffering I alrea-dy. They will suffer more. I "In three years' exceptional prosperity this Government Ims run through all available funds in New Zealand and

more and so depleted the London funds tliat the Government itself has to declare a state of emergency. -J cannot believe that, this crisis was not foreseen v by the Government, and I am certain the people of New Zealand will not be ready to forgive the Government, but a few months ago explicitly denied ; that there- was any possibility _ ofsuch a state ot emergency Dcing at hand. Has Not Been Frank. •"The price of success at the election unquestionably irapaircd : political; integrity " continued the Opposition Leader. "The people will" pay, Tor years the Government has not oecn frank with tlie electors. It has claimed that it, could suspend or modify accepted economic laws To-day they are' in much the same position as ■ King Canute and the : tide, except that the ancient king announced before he 'faced the ocean that he held no mystic power to prevent the inevitable.-- ... +I , rt "The Government has spent until, tlie larder is hire and to-day .the Government is "instituting an emergency policy ot scraping and. saving to. repair the position, just as any private citizen would have to do who faced a similar emergency.- It is distressing to think, however, that tlie crisis is . delibei ately created. The government hf-s attempted to give-reasons for. the crisis in ail attempt to shelvo part of the blame at least,,if possible. . "New Zealand cannot be content to see' falling export returns and everyone must know that apart from lower- prices the principal reasons for the decline are farming costs and a shortage of productive farm labour. Tlie Government itself lias contributed to the crisis W huge expenditure on public -woiks,* which has assisted to swell the total amount of ■ imports. / . "I repeat, there is no joy in harping on a catastrophe, but it is high time the people of New Zealand thought in terms of prevention rather than quack: remedies, in politics as well as . in many other aspects. Rising living costs must be reduced. Thousands.of men employed to-day oil unproductive works must be absorbed into productive industry. Danger of Inflation. "No import restrictions will increase exports, nor = will this Government find a way to pay their legions of employees ■without resorting to inflation, and that is, the preface to a major .catastrophe in which all sections of the community must be engulfed.. Men and "women are now being'thrown out of employment. "This Labour Government that lias proclaimed its practical virtues is actually HO better than we originally alleged, a, Government based on Socialist theories and ideals in which practicability- plavs no fundamental part, said Mr. Hamilton. "The results must be bitter fruit to the man and woman in the street. This control, of imports and exchange is the first effort to stem the tide of cause and effect, but there must be more and more expedients of an equally unpleasant nature to follow. "London funds may be temporarily strengthened, but at what co3t to the standard of living of the bulk of our .people! As cost is not a word that I' erectly concerns the Labour Government, 11 little sympathy can he expected.