The Dominion. THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1937. SAVING AND SPENDING

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 265, 5 August 1937, Page 10

The Dominion. THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1937. SAVING AND SPENDING

—s The Prime Minister, in his reply to the speech of the Leader of the Opposition at Palmerston North on Monday night, claims that the increase in the deposits in the Post 0?“ Savings Bank is a demonstration of the state of prosperityachieved since: the: Labour Government assumed office and ended the depression He points to the fact that in 1933 the deposits for the year in the Post Office Savings Bank aggregated £16,933,176, while in 1937 the total was £30,676,967, an increase of £13,743,791. The financial year 1932-33, from which .the Prime Minister quotes, was a depression year. It marked in fact, the lowest point of the depression. The comparison is therefore useless for the purpose of establishing his contention that the increase is due to, the Government’s policy. Its only value is as an indication of the natul process of recovery, the commencement of which, on this basis, dated from the following financial year, 1933-34, when the deposits at climbed to £19,428,853, and the next year to £24,179,537, an increase of £7,246,361 from the trough of the depression, and at an accelerating rate of progression. . But the Savings Bank figure of 1937, is not a record. In times of prosperity in the past, it has been approximated and even exceeded. In five separate years since 1918 the deposits were well over £29,000,000; in 1924-25 the total was £31,833,622. The figures, which were based on fifteen months’ returns, .totalled £44,30-,SJ-; or, roughly, £36,000,000 for twelve months. There was no Socialist Government in these days.

It is rather curious, in the light of a remarkable utterance in November last, that Mr. Savage should have gone to the Post Office Savings Bank for his argument. “When I was a lad, he said on that occasion, -“I was advised by my teachers, by my parents, by everybody, to save money. I have lived long enough to realise that the money I received was in payment for my services, and should be used for the exchange of services with other people. This scratching, scraping, starvation system of individual saving strangles the economic freedom and well-being of a nation. We must save as a nation and our savings will take the form of universal superannuation and national health insurance.”

This statement was reprinted from The Standard, the official organ of the Labour movement. Asked by a representative of The Dominion to explain it, Mr. Savage said that the Labour Party was not opposed to individual saving. “We mean to use the savings of the- people, plus the public credit, for the development, of nationa, assets.” It is really very difficult to follow Mr. Savage in his meanderings front one statement to another.. First of. all he decries individual saving, and then says that individual saving is necessary in order to enable the Government to implement its policy.

The simple fact of the position as disclosed by the Savings Bank deposits is that this country, in common with others in the British Commonwealth, is enjoying the benefits of the increased purchasing power of the United Kingdom markets. Australia is as prosperous as we are, but not as the result of Socialism in Government. Britain s rearmament programme has put thousands of workers back into employment. One engineering firm, it was stated yesterday, had increased its working staff from 9000 to 16,000. All this means increased purchasing power, an increased demand for products from the Dominions, and increased prosperity for ourselves. This would have happened no matter what Government was in power. Mr. Savage says that the Labour Government, when it assumed office, “ended the depression.” The Labour Government came into office on a rising tide, with greatlyenhanced resources for spending due to the rapid recovery of overseas markets—in the case of wool an almost phenomenal rise. To these resources was added a huge extra sum squeezed from taxpayers who had been assured by Mr. Savage himself before the elections tfiat the limit in taxation had been reached. There is nothing to be gained by distorting, even by implication, the facts. of this country’s economic depression, restoration, and recovery within the period’from 1930 till 1935. This recovery, moreover,. was .accomplished, it will be remembered, without assistance of any kind whatever from the Labour Party then in Opposition.