NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 231, 26 June 1931, Page 8

NOTES OF THE DAY

Once again it is necessary to emphasise the importance to the community in general, and to the farming industries especially, of securing at the earliest possible opportunity a reduction of ruling rates of interest. The Canterbury Chamber of Commerce has drawn attention to the question in it series of resolutions calling upon the .Government to reduce the interest rates on internal loans. There is little likelihood of a general fall in interest rates unless and until the Government sets an example by lowering its own standard, which at present is 5{- per cent, for bonds sold over the Post Office counter. As pointed out by Mr. W. Perry -at the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, interest payments constitute the heaviest item of the farmer's costs —one-third of his expenditure in fact. If the Government acts, not by legislation but by example, or in other words refrains from bidding up the money market against the public and against itself, the price of money will follow the normal course in a time of falling prices, tending also to drop although more slowly.

If, as is their reported intention, the miners in the West Coast unions to pay tfieir unemployment levy, the Government will be expected by those of the community who have accepted the tax as a legal as well as a moral obligation to take steps to enforce payment, as it has already done in the case of other defaulters. The recent prosecution of three farmers, one of whom professed conscientious objections to the levy is a precedent from which there can be no departure. Under the Act employers may be held liable for the default of their employees, and of interest in the case of miners is the fact that the Government is itself a large employer in its own mines. It is easy to conceive, therefore, the possibility of a difficu't and complicated situation unless the Government deals with this new development with a very firm band. Should it fail to do so the scheme will break down altogether, for others who merely pay because the law insists will follow the example of the rtiiners- if it doesn’t