WANTS AND SUPPLY

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 85, 7 October 1932, Page 11

WANTS AND SUPPLY

NEW ZEALAND'S RICHES

STANDARD OF LIVING

The contention that New Zealand's prosperity was bound up with the conditions'"ruling, overseas was refuted by Mr.E. J. Howard (Labour, Christchurch South) in the course of his speech in the House of Representatives last night in the Financial Debate. He argued that New Zealand could "provide sufficient to feed, clothe, and house its people at a,high standard. He said that he refused to believe that New Zealand's problems were the same as that of any other country— they were entirely different. The idea that the Dominion's standard was the result of- something the country sent overseas would not stand examination. Could New Zealand feed herself? She had not only sufficient to satisfy any appetite, but could also send a big surr plus overseas to pay for her National Debt. The people of the Dominion could clothe themselves in wool, artificial silk, and cotton in a; decent and respectable way and they could house themselves in wood, brick, concrete, or marble. They could live in a standard of luxury that had not yet been available to the great majority .of them. The country had the materials to build all the means of locomotion and enjoy the modern facilities for transport. He did not mean to infer that New Zealand should put a wall round herself and refuse to with other countries, but he wished to emphasise that tha country could produce not only the necessaries but also the luxuries of life. The only thing that was lacking was the little round discs called coins. TJiere was not sufficient) of these coins to exchange- for the goods which were produced.; There was not sufficient bank notes, which were made by a printing press, to allow the people who wanted the goods and were willing to give service for them, to obtain them. The best market for the Dominion's products—the home market—was,being impoverished. The unemployed, instead of enjoying the standard of living the country was capable of giving them, were begging for second-hand clothes and someone else's boots, and dodging the landlord. There was something radically wrong with a system which perpetrated this kind of thing,