GUARANTEES WIN

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 111, 6 November 1935, Page 14

GUARANTEES WIN

A COMPARISON DRAWN

PREFERABLE TO EXCHANGE

A comparison between the efifects of the high exchange policy and tb/fe guaranteed price policy was drawn in favour of the latter by the Leaduit of ths Labour Party (Mr. M. J. Savage) when speaking at the Town Hall test evening.

Mr. Savage said the raising of the rate of exchange was the equivalent of an indirect tax on the who.'Je of tha people of New Zealand —rich and poor, the burden being greatest on large families. It was raised- foi; the purpose of assisting exporters, amd it helped the exporter most when he needed it least, that was, when parices were comparatively high. When was at 127s per cwt the farmer got more assistance than when buU;er was selling at 70s per cwt. "A guaranteed price, cm the other hand," said Mr. Savage, ''would help the farmer when he ne:«ded it most and would not necessai.-ily cost the whole people any more than a high rate of exchange. A high rate of exchange acts as a brakv> on Britain's sales to New Zealand, which in turn must curtail New Zealand's sales to Britain, one-way trade, being impossible. A guaranteed juSce would have no such effect. A guaranteed price would begin with an a verage of prices ruling during the lajft eight or ten years. Labour standis for guaranteed prices."