SLIPPING BACK

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 103, 28 October 1932, Page 6

SLIPPING BACK

.'■ ■. ■-'' -♦ . PAYMENT OF INTEREST

NEW ZEALAND'S POSITION

WHAT OF NEXT [YEAR ?

According to figures quoted in the House of Representatives last night by I the Government member for Wellington ! Suburbs (Mr. R. A. Wright), New Zealand, has been slipping back to the extent of £2,000,000 a year as a result of her payments-on the National Debt. Mr. Wright prefaced his remarks by sympathising with the task which had faced the Prime Minister. He thought rMr.- Forbes had made a good job of it, although he could not always agree with, tho attitude ho had taken up. The Government had been able to get over the present year without increasing taxation, but he thought that next year the Prime Minister ' would be faced with considerable difficulty and embarrassment.. The whole trouble' was that the people of New Zealand had been leading an extravagant life. OUT OFBOEKO^TOD MOlf^Y: Mr. Wright safdUtappeareivto/him that for the last ten years Nevy-/Zea-land ,had been meeting /her interest charges out of borrowed money Mr. W.E.,Parry (Labour, Auckland Central): That fact has been pointed out from these benches. ■ ■ Mr. Wright said that the; -difference between exports and imports over: ten years had been insufficien^to "crieet'tlte interest ■ bill. That' disclosed • a very serious position. Over the past '■' ten years the imports had' been valued at £453,760,173, and' the, exports at .£477,254,310.- The surplus, of exports over was thus & 23,554,137, or £2,355,413 a year.! The average interest charges over thelast ten years amounted ,to ,£ 8,520,913. a year. He'haoi-had freat difficulty in differentiating beween the interest paid in'Ne^ Zealand and that paid abroad, but; he-*" had calculated—and he /thought) fairly .correctly^—that the/amount paid-'--.-. j-fbioad' each year was £4,361,969. That was the average over ten years. That vmeant that tho average deficiency^over ten years was, roughly, £2,000,000.. Newi Zealand had been going behiiid to that extent without taking- into consideration exchange payments and sinking funds provision. Another aspect that was to be taken into consideration was the local body debt. Mr. Wright_went on to refer to tho serious financial position of the Tailways, and said he could not understand why the railways had not been protected against competition in tho same way as the tramway systems of the Do-' minion had been protected. SPIRITUAL REVIVAL NEEDED He concluded his remarks by issuinoa warning against any form of inflation, and said he believed that a spiritual revival throughout the world would go a long way toward solving the difficulties with which th£ y were faced. Such a revival would change the outlook of a large number of people. Mr. H. G-. R. Mason (Labour, Auckland Suburbs): Wouldn't a revival in New Zealand suffice? Mr. Wright^ No, not for the woria. I like New, Zealand, but I am not one of those who think Hew Zealand leads the world in every direction.