EXPORTS AND IMPORTS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22446, 6 July 1938, Page 12

EXPORTS AND IMPORTS

MR HOLLAND’S FIGURES CHALLENGED STATEMENT SAID TO BE “GROSSLY EXAGGERATED” ■From Our Parliamentary Reporter. WELLINGTON. July 5. Statements made by Mr S. G. Holland (National, Christchurch North) in an address in Wellington last night relating to the Dominion’s trading figures were described as “grossly exaggerated and incorrect’’ by Mr R. McKeen (Government, Wellington South) speaking in the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives this evening. , Mr McKeen said Mr Holland had been reported* as making the following statement;—“ln order to enable New Zealand to pay its commitments on its overseas debt, we require to have an excess of exports over imports of approximately £11,000,000, and the fact that we are going to be short to the extent of something like £7,000,000 this year is a fact that should cause every thinking man to consider the position very seriously” , “The inference is that the excess of exports is so slender that we are going to have a deficit at the end of the year, Mr McKeen said. “If Mr Holland had looked up the figures, he would have found that the excess of exports over imports for the five months was £7 867,000, with still seven months to | go.’ If we require only another £3,000,000, then surely his statement was grossly exaggerated and incorrect.” Freedom and State Control Mr McKeen quoted a. statement which, he said, had been made by the Hon J. G. Cobbe (National, Oroua) that the coming struggle was between freedom and State control, that the overwhelming majority of people were in favour of freedom, and that an attempt was being made to bring them under State domination. “Is there the semblance of truth in that?” Mr MeKeen asked. “Is there any organisation that is prevented from carrying on to-day?” The Hon Sir Alfred Hansom (National, Pahiatua): Yes. The chemist in Auckland who was not allowed to start business. ...... Mr McKeen; That statement is like many others. They are sheer platitudes. Members of the Opposition are bankrupt in criticism, and that is why they are taking cover m these ! platitudes. , _ , ! The test of what the Government j had done, he continued, was in the \ statistical record issued by the Gov-, eminent Statistician on the progress of production. The people were never better off than they were to-day. They had economic freedom and security m greater measure than ever they had experienced. Mr McKeen quoted the profits of a number of companies in 1935. and compared them with their profits in 1937. “We can show that private enterprise has gained more under Labour administration than it ever gained under the Forbes-Coates Government,” he said.