The Press Thursday, December 15, 1932. Experts Needed.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20730, 15 December 1932, Page 8

The Press Thursday, December 15, 1932. Experts Needed.

It is announced this morning that Dr. Higlit, Professor Tocker, and Professor Befshaw have been called to Wellington to discuss 'with the Government the financial and economic position of the country. It is to be hoped that the economists will not merely be informally consulted and the public left in the dark as to their proposals. The Committee of Economists appointed earlier in the year gave the public for the first time a clear and authoritative outline ol: the problems which the depression has created for New Zealand. It also sketched for the Government a policy which has done much to solve these problems and would have done more had they remained constant. But in the seven months since the l'eport was issued the depression has become much more acute. Prices for primary produce have not rallied, have in fact declined still further, with the result that in New Zealand the disparity between the farmers return and his production costs has widened dangerously. Moreover, the prospect of further shrinkages in revenue and the difficulty of cutting the costs of government any further makes it less easy than it was a few months ago to regard the present deficit as manageable. The political events of the last few weeks have convinced any who needed convincing that the position is serious enough to demand more sweeping measures than were contemplated by the Government at the beginning of the session. In these circumstances it is clearly necessary to call in the economists once more, not merely to assist the Government, but also to let the public know what further sacrifices are necessary and why. It has been said, and will be said again, that the Government's reliance on expert advice tends to weaken the authority and prestige of Parliament. The Labour Party, indeed, attempted to forestall the summoning of another Committee of Economists by asking the House of Representatives to set up an inter-Party Committee of its own members to report on the economic situation. The obvious answer to tliis proposal is that the conduct of Parliament in the last three months has been such that the suggestions of a Parliamentary Committee would neither deserve nor receive the confidence of the Government and the public. In any case, Parliament will not increase its prestige by pretending to an expert knowledge which it does not possess and is not expected to possess. Unfortunately many people still think that no special training or knowledge is needed to qualify a man to speak with authority on economic questions. The depression will have conferred at least one benefit on New Zealand if it makes Parliament and the public realise that common sense alone is worth, no more in economics than it is iu engineering or medicine.