EXPENDITURE OF FULL INCOME RENDERS IMPORT CONTROL STILL NECESSARY, SAYS MR. HOLLAND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23352, 7 September 1950, Page 6

EXPENDITURE OF FULL INCOME RENDERS IMPORT CONTROL STILL NECESSARY, SAYS MR. HOLLAND

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, Sept, 7. New Zealand’s income this year would be £200,000,000, said the Prime Minister, Mr. S. G. Holland, at the annual meeting yesterday afternoon of the United Kingdom Manufacturers and New Zealand Representatives’ Association. Every penny would be spent by the end of the year.

“We are struggling to live within our income,” continued Mr. Holland. “We have given more import licenses than we should have and we arc just going to struggle through.”

How could the Government have given greater freedom of control from import licensing when New Zealand was spending every penny it could get. lie asked. All the Government could have done would have been to take from someone to give to someone else.

Mr. Holland paid a high tribute to the farming community and said that it should never be forgotten that the fanning community provided the income on which the country lived. The United Kingdom Manufacturers’ Association in its report was asking for import control through exchange control. said Mr. Holland. That was not practical politics. When the country was short of overseas funds the Government must allocate them to see that there was a return to the Treasury through customs and it must see that the same return was gained for each £1,000,000 spent as when everything was free from control.

One of the reasons for the need to retain control was the 1 per cent, or 2 per cent, who bought overseas exchange above par, said Mr. Holland. Pressure was then exerted on the Government to stop that and it was those “scallywags’’ who were responsible for the restrictions, he said.