THRIFT AND THE FUTURE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 47, 19 November 1936, Page 10

THRIFT AND THE FUTURE

Sir James Parr’s prophecy of better export prices for the next two years is tempered by a warning that the good times Ix.-ing artificially induced, may not last. I his throwing of cold water on recovery 7 mav not be the best way to hearten people, but it as as well to realise what may come. Fully half the troubles front which we have lately emerged were due to extravagant or unwise living in the last period of prosperity. Farmers who could have paid off or substantially reduced their mortgages, and business men who might have done the same with their bank overdrafts, but were not pressed to do it. preferred to live for the day and let the morrow take care of itself. They know better now, and will not make the same mistake again; but a new generation in farming and business may be tempted, when money comes more easily, to emulate the Government’s prodigality in spending, heedless of the dav of reckoning ahead. Our present political masters do not believe in thrift, for which disbelief the taxpayer will be called upon presently to pay. But the taxpayer cannot look to others to pay for his errors, and unless he practises thrift in his private affairs may be forced to eat anew the bitter fruits of depression