IMPORT FIGURES

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22876, 24 November 1939, Page 8

IMPORT FIGURES

Methods of Comparison MR NASH’S SYSTEM CRITICISED [THE PRESS Special Service.! WELLINGTON, November 23. “I am amazed at the effrontery of .Mr- Nash in asking the people to accept a comparison' of import figures under his control policy with those before control was instituted,” said Mr O. C, Mazengarb in an address to the New-Zea-land Institute of Secretaries (Wellington Chapter) to-day. In the first place his comparison is between the figures of the depression years and those subsequent to the world depression," he said. Why can t Mr Nash be fair and compare the figures during two similar periods of world prices, instead of taking a low-price , period and comparing it with a high-price period? Surely the right comparison is between quantities of imports, and not their nominal values at dissimilar periods. There is another respect in which Mr Nash hoodwinks his followers. The importers’ complaint is not that the total quantity of goods coming into the country has been restricted; but that restrictions have been placed on goods in which shopkeepers deal, things which the people want'to buy. “Whjn he tells us that goods to the total annual value of more than £50,000,000 have been imported during the last few years, Mr Nash omits to state what proportion of this, amount is represented by Government imports—bulldozers, steel, machinery, vehicles, and other things to enable the Government to keep a huge army on public works. Let Mr Nash subtract the value of Government purchases from the total imports and give us a fair comparison between consumable goods purchased in the pre-depression period and the years of his administration. You can’t fill Christmas stockings with bulldozers, or hose a garden with steel girders, and women don’t wear machinery. “Mr Nash said yesterday: ‘What has happened is that the demand for goods occasioned by greater prosperity within the country has increased very considerably.’ Perhaps a more correct statement would be: ‘What has happened is that the Government has been importing so much for public works and other State enterprises that it hasn’t enough sterling available for importers to bring in the things which private citizens desire to buy.’ A fair controversialist would separate importations for Government purposes from other imports. .Why doesn’t Mr Hash, do this?,’* ...