CRISIS FORESEEN

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 112, 4 February 1939, Page 12

CRISIS FORESEEN

Criticism Of Labour Policy DAY OF RECKONING Statement By Opposition Leader Factors responsible for the present financial difficulties were discussed by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Hamilton, in a statement last evening. The crisis, he said, was not inevitable. The Labour Government had produced it, just as had been prophesied it would. The drastic steps the Government was taking today were to deal with effects and not causes. The control of imports and exchange was the first effort to stem the tide, but there must be more and more expedients of. an equally unpleasant nature to follow. To remedy the situation a reversal of the pi esent socialist policy was necessary. "To make it obvious to every man and woman in New Zealand that the Dominion conference of importers was not. simply a political manoeuvre aimed at discrediting the Labour Government, the National Party has deliberately withheld its comment on the restrictions recently imposed,” said Mr. Hamilton. "Now that the business community has stated its case, and now that a considered answer has been given by the Government, no case can be prejudiced by some plain speaking by me. “There is no pleasure in seeing a prophecy of disaster fulfilled, but it is my duty as Leader of the Opposition to state bluntly that the present financial crisis, coming as it does with remarkable swiftness after three years of the greatest prosperity, was forecast by the National Party ever since the Government took office in 1935. It is no easy task to persuade people enjoying temporary benefits that trouble lies ahead, 'but that task I have never shirked, nor has it been shirked by any member of my parly. Now all thinking people must be alarmed at the Government’s desperate expedient, disguised as policy, which it hopes will extricate itself from its self-made difficulties.” Funds in Credit. Mr. Hamilton said the one reason why the Government had been able to stave off the day of reckoning so long was because of the legacy left by the Nation Party—over £40,000,009 of sterling funds in London, and the various Government. departments in credit. Those savings had dwindled to a mere notlhing, and the credits had been dissipated and squandered. The Reserve Bank had been drawn upon to such an extent that the danger signal had been hoisted. The crisis was upon them and it must develop inevitably, 'to add to the tension, Labour policy had intensified the crisis by strangling production; even export income was falling. The drastic steps tire Government was taking today were to deal with effects and not causes. To remedy the effects, there must be a reversal of the present Socialist policy. To restore confidence, business must thrive and employment must be productive. Already men and tvomen had been thrown out of employment. If the Government continued on its course, more and more would be forced out. Those still in work would have to pay more to keep those who were unemployed. The bubble was then burst and the standard of living forced down. Capital and Labour. “To reverse this movement the war between capital and labour nurtured by the Labour Government must end,” said Mr. Hamilton. “The employee must realize that his interests are irrevocably bound up with those of his employer, and vice versa. Every facility must be given to capital, both inside, and outside New Zealand. Without absolute co-opera-tion on sound lines, there can be no founding of new industries or expansion of those of today. There has been no sudden emergency today. The Labour crop of spendthrift extravagance, sown successively for three seasons, is be- ■ iug harvested. “The National Party always attacked the Socialist policy proclaimed by the Government as ‘spending its way to prosperity—onward and upward.’ The Government would not listen. It scoffed. The majority of the people would not listen. The prophecy is fulfilled and the Government seeks to save its life by desperate expedients and the people are suffering already. They will suffer more. In three years of exceptional prosperity, this Government lias run through all the available funds in New Zealand and more, and so depleted the London funds that the Government itself has to declare a state of emergency. “I cannot believe that this crisis was not foreseen by the Government, and I am certain that Hie people of New Zealand will not be ready to forgive a Government who, but a few months ago, explicitly denied that there was any possibility of such a state of emergency being at hand. The price of success at Hie election unquestionably impaired political integrity. The people will pay. Economic Laws.

“For years the Government has not been frank with the electors. It has claimed thatrit could suspend ortnodify accepted economic laws. Today they are in much the same position as King Canute and the tide, except that the ancient King announced before he faced the ocean that he held no mystic power to prevent the inevitable. The Government has spent till the larder is bare, and today the Government is instituting an emergency policy of scraping and saving to repair the position, just as any private citizen would have to do who faced a similar emergency. It i<s distressing to think, however, that the crisis is deliberately created. “The Government has attempted to give reasons for the crisis in an attempt to shelve part of the blame at least if possible. New Zealand cannot be content to see the falling export returns and everyone must know that, apart from lower prices, the principal reasons for the decline are high farming costs an I shortage of productive farm labour. The Government itself has contributed to the crisis by its huge expenditure on public works which has assisted to swell the total amount of imports.

“It is high time (he people of New Zealand thought in terms of prevenlion rather than quack remedies in politics, ns well as in many other aspects of living. Ris-

ing costs must be reduced. The thousands of men employed today on unproductive works must lie absorbed into productive industry. No import restrictions will increase the exports, nor will this Government find a way to pay their legions ' of employees without resorting to inflation and that is the preface to major catastrophe in which all sections of the community must be . engulfed.” Workers Unemployed. Mr. Hamilton said men and women were now being thrown out of employment. Their anxiety, their personal problems were not satisfied by talk in so-called economic theory that they may, at some future date, be reabsorbed into some industry, they having already devoted most of their life to building up a trade or a business in another vocation. “This Labour Government that lias proclaimed its practical virtues is actually no better than we originally alleged,” added Mr. Hamilton. “It is a Government based on Socialist theories and ideals in which practicability plays no fundamental part. The results must be bitter fruit to the man and woman in the street. “This control of imports and exchange is the first effort to stem the tide of cause and effect, but there must be more and more expedients of an equally unpleasant nature to follow. London funds may be temporarily strengthened, but at what cost to the standard of living of the bulk of our people? As cost is not a word flint greatly concerns the Labour Government, little sympathy can be expected. The National Party still calls for sane thought and is still very much in the light for sound government and freedom for all.”