The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, APRIL 24, 1939 IMPORT PROHIBITIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 95, 24 April 1939, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

MONDAY, APRIL 24, 1939 IMPORT PROHIBITIONS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that reeds resistance, For the "future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

"Exchange - control," remarked an English political observer when commenting last year on New Zealand's economic position, " has a way of adding- to itself bit by bit like a rolling snowball. .. . New Zealand Labour, one may guess, will not be specially reluctant to use this particular instrument, , which is suited not only to its general j -political philosophy but also to its particular j anibition of canalising : toade on * reciprocal ''■ \

lines." That was (written before the import | j control policy was "introduced, on ©eceiriber j 6. " There may be a little ] Mr. Nash then remarked, "until traders, j , and the general public become familiar with. ,: the new procedure, but in the main, in so far j as sterling balances are in hand, all funds j legitimately required will toe made available. , ' , j To-day another story i*> told. The snowball : has become #n ca-valaoche, and ihe «hdc'k of j ■its if all is sbeing ielt, iknd -w-ill ibe ielt, :by f everybody in the Dominion. No longer can there be talk of "a little inconvenience;" ] the prospect is that the community will be ; deprived, in Avhole or in part, of a large number of commodities which it has been accustomed to buy and enjoy freely without I question. It will be able to buy New Zealand i substitutes for some of these commodities, but neither in quantity nor in variety can the substitution be complete for a long time i 'to come. The community must submit to a lowering of its standard of comfort.

Given the policy on which it is embarked, and the financial position in which it finds iitaell', the new restrictions are plainly inevitable. 'Indeed, their inevitability could ■hardly have been overlooked by the iGovernment when it issued the first restrictions. It knows now, if it did not Iknow then, that (as Mr. Kaeh told the [Labour. Conference) "25 per cent only of <.our imports are finished goods," the goods •that are sold in shops. On other large iclasses of imports materials, producers' equipment, transport equipment, j tEueis and. lubricants —drastic restrictions ; .cannot Jae -made without drfterfering with [ jprodudtion, Avhich is of vital importance. SFor .this auid other reasons the Becember jEestaietions have proved ineffectual. Sterling -ifiunds !l?awe not risen since December, but (Mien, ifSheugJli *his is the season Avhen they j (dugtot ito fae Teaching their peak level fortlihe year. .iHenee the further-aiestiictions, flVhidk Mre *he fall woaMy iand 'faeev&y <on /iponsumers , goods.

•Saw llcHbg (Wsl 'these iprohibitions -and j , XB&txietimts "last?. ' Eifey **e> of course, not : '^ie|{nK^S^^iH..\ie^Ba(i.' : these jparts.; the iGoiyerawjaestit tad to take similar ; But, then, the export"; tad ccilkspaed'; the depression was ; world-wide..' (there is no such collapse; ifch» ihes foeen brought aibout hot 'by •' ;<eJifaMi!*}'-. by internal factors. Mr. says' that, given , importers' , co-operation tiiitil etei'iing funds are again ■aveileble-iin " xeasosoeble amount," it should ibe ippssible "witbia a reasonably early period lesfeictions." He could harflly ib* moase w&gue ''.on a questiooi that afieots o)ie liveliiiood [of thousands of people, employers and employed. -What constitutes a '"reasonable amotm't" of sterling funds depends in part on sail Dhe ordinaa-y £ actors, plus ttie exti-aordinairy ones of the '■ loan (as well as interest) commitments, and its method of mee'tmg them, as as on the threatening Eirropean • situation. It seems impossible to suggest j with (coßfidenoe, ieven approxdmately, a time ' 'limit for .these latest iresteictieais. their consequences mil flow thaiek and fast, and the Government, wha;tey,er its present ! hopes, will find itself driven ,to further 'actions rof a kind alien to tbe free «nd easy life that New Zealand has known. * •"•''••i