Farmers and Monetary Policy.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20907, 14 July 1933, Page 10

Farmers and Monetary Policy.

" Science and history are not suited "for discussion except by experts," wrote a brilliant and austere Cambridge economist recently. " Others " are simply in the position of re- " quiring more information and till " they have acquired all the avail- " able information cannot do any- " thing but accept on authority the " opinions of those better qualified." These are hard words; but the truth in them is exemplified by the resolutions on monetary policy passed by the Dominion Conference of the Farmers' Union. Without any idea that it was being sublimely ridiculous, the conference affirmed unanimously and in successive resolutions that the Government's proposal to create a central bank ought to be resisted and that the time had come "to bring about a controlled in"ternal monetary system." It .lid not occur to the conference that the centralisation of banking is a necessary first step to the creation of a managed internal currency system. Yet the opinions of the conference about currency are not as depressing as its unwillingness to realise that it is not competent to have opinions on the subject. If one of its members owned' a horse which had fallen sick, he would call in a veterinary surgeon. If his wheat developed an unknown disease, he would seek assistance from the experts of the Department of Agriculture. Why, then, does he put complete faith in his own remedies tor the ills of the economic system, which is quite as complex as the inwards of a horse or the biology of wheat? It is true that he -ay have common sense; but common sense without knowledge and training is as little use in economics as in any other science. It would be unfair to suppose that the resolutions of the conference on monetary policy,, represent the considered opinions of a majority or even a large section of the i farmers of New Zealand. But the conference has an influence over the opinions of farmers and • possibly some influence with the Government; and it therefore has a , duty not to pronounce dogmatically < on national issues without first tak- < ing competent advice. :