INSULATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 7, 8 July 1938, Page 8

INSULATION

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —A Government member has stated that there are two alternative methods of insulating New Zealand:— (1) Control of exchange; (2) control of imports. Control of exchange wrifald sooner or later mean inflation and this means higher costs, and even if it serves its purpose for a short time would before long require further doses, and so accelerate rising costs and the burden on the wage-earner. The very people it is intended to aid would be the worst sufferers. Control of imports would be a sys-. tern of bureaucratic or totalitarian Socialism. There must be many thousands of people, both, employers and employees, interested both directly and indirectly in the importation and distribution of overseas goods. I would suggest that they give very serious thought to the effect of such a policy on the welfare of their country and their own particular livelihoods. Control of imports must be restriction of imports, and to the extent that we restrict imports we necessarily restrict exports. It is pleasing to note that Mr. Holland, M.P., has given the policy of the National Party as one of encouraging high wages but also of insisting on a fair return for them. Such a policy will do more than anything to solve the problems of the wage-earner and stillleave him with some claim to freedom.—l am, etc.,

RISING COSTS.