The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1939. MORE HASTE, LESS SPEED?

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 141, 17 June 1939, Page 8

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

SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1939. MORE HASTE, LESS SPEED?

For the cause that lack* assistance, For the wrong that reeds resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that tee can do.

Mr. Nash's lii•.-L public statement alter he reached London on May 29 cunt.-lined a declaration that New Ze;iland intruded to meet, nil hrr debt, r-< uiiiii itnu-n t>. That declaration represented the (iovornincnt's policy and it implied, ol" course, that the Government was both willing and able to meet its commitments. In the summary (•allied ve-tenlay id' coiiiinent made by "The Time*" city editor there was attributed to him the definite statement that, ''as things are going," New Zealand's sterling fund- will be insufficient with which to meet the debt service. Such a statement by a responsible authority must, arrest at tent i.m, for if it were true, then the Government's position would be worse than has been commonly believed. In In justifying the policy of exchange control nnd import selection to the Labour party conference, Mr. Nash said its purposes were to enable the fioverninent to use the sterling funds available "for most urgent needs, first to pay our debts, secondly to bring into this country the raw material and equipment necessary for New Zealand industries, thirdly to bring in consumers' goods, but to exclude those goods which for" a time we could go without, or which New Zealand could produce." First among the '• most urgent needs," it will be noted, Mr. Nash put the need of paying our debts. Not then, nor, as far as \vc arc aware, at any other time, did he suggest that, despite import restriction, sterling funds might not he sufficient for the debt service. That suggestion, if untrue, ought to be strongly denied, both in New Zealand and in London.

THE DEBTOR'S WISHES. In liis comment yesterday «>n the report Mr. Savage did not refer to this question of the sufficiency of sterling funds for the debt service, though it is a vital question. He preferred to speak in general terms of the Government's wishes in relation to the United Kingdom. But it seems that the time has arrived when it is the United Kingdom's wishes that count. If, as the cabled comment , suggests, Mr. Sash is making no progress -with his loan negotiations and is obliged to ask the British Government for accommodation, he is not in a good position to bargain. It may he that he and Mr. Savage think that the British Government's views on the New Zealand Government's policy are mistaken, but a man asking for help would Iv wasting his time if he attempted to argue with the man he was asking to help him. The Government, may be honestly convinced that, provided it has a little help now, its policy will work out all right in the end, but such convictions will not increase, but may actually reduce, its credit-worthiness, as to which the lender is the sole judge. Meanwhile, the New Zealand public is entitled to exact information. If the sterling fund portion is as "The Times'' suggests, the public should not have had to wait for the revelation to ,be made in London; it should have heen made by the Government in New Zealand.

VOLUME OF IMPORTS. Mr. Savage said yesterday that there is nnly one way to conserve overseas sterling credit—"that is, not to spend it" —and he rightly drew attention to the contradictory nature of some of the criticism of the Government. The import restrictions have hit some United Kingdom exporters hard, just as they have hit some New Zealand importers hard. We do not know the total amount by which the imports of consumers' goods from the United Kingdom have been reduced, but it is pertinent to remark that, according to Mr. Nash, "even the goods on order for delivery during the current year, for defence, will entail a charge on sterling funds of £2,000,000." This means that, in so far as the amount of £2,000,000 is concerned, imports have not been reduced; their character has been changed. There has been a substitution of guns for goods of the kind sold in shops. The manufacturers of the latter kind lose, but the armament manufacturers gain. There may be no legitimate cause for complaint by the British Government on this score. But, in so far as the shortage of sterling funds is due to heavy purchases of equipment for manufacturing goods which will permanently displace United Kingdom goods—what can Mr. Nash expect, the British Government to say if he is obliged to go to it for help? As a Government dependent on popular support, it is more likely to give ear to the protests of its own manufacturers and their workers than to his assurances. It is true that in Australia secondary industries have been built up to a point far beyond that which is in sight in New Zealand, but the building up has been gradual, and during tho process the Australian Government has not been obliged, in comparable circumstances, to ask the British Government for help. It appears that Mr. Nash's predicament, which is New Zealand's, is to a very large extent due to the precipitate haste with which the Government endeavoured to give effect to its policy, and that the outcome will be, as the proverb warns us, that the " more haste" wiU be iollowcd by "less speed."