SHARP REBUKE

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 32, 8 February 1939, Page 12

SHARP REBUKE

VIEWS RESENTED. AUSTRALIAN VISITOR. HON. EDMUND DWYER-GRAY. " SAVOUR OF PROPAGANDA." A sharp rebuke hae been administered by the Bureau of Importers to the Hon. Kdinund Dwyer-Gray, deputy-Premier of Tasmania, who, in an interview at Invercargill, expressed the opinion that the Government's policy of controlling credit was fully justified and that it would succeed. In ii telegram dispatched this morning to "lion. Dwyer-Gray, visiting politician," the bureau staled: "The remarks which you and other Australian politicians have made relative to the import control regulations obviously savour of political propaganda and are bitterly resented by importer*, their employees, and others engaged in tlic distribution business. "Your statement shows that you obviously know nothing about the operations of the regulation*!. We trust that you and other Australians, will in future i eln> in from commenting on New Zealand domestic matters, of which you ob\iouoly know very little." Mr. Dwyer-Gray stated in the interview: "The present 'financial crisie' in New Zealand, which resulted in the adoption of the system of licensing import*! and ox port* early last December, will, I think, be successfully overcome. Further, only Sew Zealand's iiiqiortenj, and by no means all of them, the New Zealand daily Pret*s, which is prejudiced and entirely and unreasonably anti-Labour, and the satellites of orthodox finance in London, Australia and New Zealand are putting up any sort of protest.

"It might be that the purchasing power of the country b.in increased a little too rapidly, with the result that when the people had emptied all the store* of the Dominion of locally-manu-factured goocin. imports became unduly stimulated. However, it cannot bo denied that the depletion of Sew Zealand'* reserve funds in London, accompanied by adverse changee in the Dominion"* overseas balance of trade, forced the Government to adopt etrong mean« of cure.

"The Xew Zealand Government's policy is fully justified, nnd it will succeed. Others who are gloomily predicting big increases in costs of production and in the cost of living, are entirely forgetful of the fuct that l'urliatncnt hag already enacted legislation which will enable the Government to control prices and prevent profiteering.

"The Government makes no secret of the fact that its present policy is intended to protect and raise the standard of living of the people of the Dominion, which to-day is probably the highest in the world. Already the country ie relatively a workers' paradise," he said. "It will become increasingly so, and the Labour party will undoubtedly rule this Dominion for a generation or more. In my opinion, the Labour movement in Xcw Zealand Iβ destined to achieve one of the most complete triumphe In the story of man by making a real success of democracy for the first time in history. Nothing but a destroying war --•an prevent it."