Australia's Credit.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20024, 4 September 1930, Page 19

Australia's Credit.

The irresponsibles in the Labour movement in Australia who advise the repudiation of public debts as a short way out of their financial and economic difficulties either do not know what they are talking about or are too hot-headed to care. The trouble of course is that even when nonsense is the result of ignorance it can do a great deal of harm. Although other sections of the Labour Party have been prompt to disclaim any association or sympathy with the repudiationists, and to convince the world that they are merely petulant chatterers, it will be most difficult to persuade the overseas world that a section of the Labour Party in /the Commonwealth would not scruple, if it seemed advantageous, to break any contract and laugh at any obligation. Sir Otto 'Niemeyer has, very patiently and sympathetically, shown the people of Australia the hard road that will lead them back to prosperity. He has made it clear thap the Commonwealth has the power to cure itself without turning to any of the quack remedies of despair, and if he had said anything else no one in New Zealand would have listened to him. There can be no doubt of any kind about Australia's power of recovery, once she exerts herself, and begins seriously to make sacrifices. But, what chiefly concerns us in New Zealand is the fact that even though the Commonwealth has been brought to its knees by extravagance, in the sight of the whole world, there is a large section of the population determined to resist the economies without which the country cannot be saved. It is unpleasant, and unsafe, to have this evil example so near to us, and depressing that there should be no sign among our own Labour leaders of a determination to keep their followers in safer paths.