THE BEDROCK OF ECONOMICS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 116, 12 November 1935, Page 10

THE BEDROCK OF ECONOMICS

At a time when the people of New Zealand are faced with proposals by candidates for election to Parliament involving very large sums of money., the concluding remarks in an interview in "The Post" last evening with a retired fanner who has jus-: returned from his ninth tour of the world are peculiarly appropriate. The gentleman in question, Mr. Janes Lobb, of Waitahuna, Otago,'is a man who, according to the interview, "has found a policy of thrift and work the source of his own prosperity." He started as a farm labourer fifty-two years ago, with no capital but his hands and a keen mind, ;-nd before very long hecame the owrer of a farm of 1600 acres. This he: sold in 1919 and commenced to travel, with an observant eye for economic phenomena in the various countries through which he passed. Of America, as seen on his latest trip, Ik- expresses the opinion that "prosperity wTill not fully return to the Un:i:ed States under the present policy of initiating huge works with borrowiid money while the productiveness of the country is being checked." Some of the works are described and the interview concludes 'vith these pithy sentences: Mr. I.obb attributes the world's troubles to spending money before it has beer earned. He considers that his own position is due to never spending Is until he has earned 2s 6d. When tie story of the world, particularly since the War and particularly of New Zealand, is considered, it will be iound that Mr. Lohb's simple explanation is in the main correct and that the policy of mortgaging the future is the principal cause of suffering in the present. Remembering this the elector might well bear in mind the old adage, "Once bitten, twice sliy," and beware of rash promises ol money to be spent before it

is earned