AN UNBIASED SURVEY

Grey River Argus, 11 February 1938, Page 3

AN UNBIASED SURVEY

CONDITIONS IN N.Z. BRITISH TRADE REPORT. Emphatic endorsement of the claim made by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, in a recent review of industrial and business activities in the Dominion, that two years of Labour Government had brough New Zealand to the highest level of prosperity it had ever experienced, is contained in the Report on Economic and Commercial Conditions in New Zealand, written by Mr R. Boulter, C.M.G., his Majesty’s Trade Commissioner in New Zealand, and Mr T. G. A. Muntz, Assistant Trade Commissioner. No one could accuse Messrs Boulter and Muntz of having a bias in favour of the Labour Government, and their report, which is dated July, 1937 can therefore be accepted as a calm and dispassionate survey of conditions in New-Zealand entirely tree from party political propaganda. After referring to the direct benefit derived from the striking expansion of industry and commerce in the United Kingdom, the report continues:— . “Internally ■ the policy adopted bv the Government has been responsible for increasing the amount of money in circulation and raising the spendin power of the people. have been expended on public works and the relief of unemployment. An extensive programme of■ h ° use A ing has been undertaken, Awards handed down by the re^ hitration Court have fixed minimum rates of wages and prescribed higher | wage scales than Ptey I ?^^ In a number of industries. The bal ance of the wage ‘cuts’ enforced durimr the depression has been rstoied inconsequence of these measures the workers have been in P OB8 ® 8810^^ 1 . large greater opportunity tor spending.” REPLY TO CRITICS. That statement made by men comlightenment of the person United Kingdom jn^® £ m plete S ot Mr W W. Mulholland, that New Zealand farmers .U p rovemeat , ‘the truth s improvement in is entirely due to th t p commodit ies. the prices of our P m-informed .It/? also a reply to the criticism of Mr ba °„ d to end of by Tory editors from end da the Dominion, and ofthe P p £ er of Issued in the name rfUieh Adam the National Party itne nu Hamilton). statement reMr Savage in his s Ngw Zea . •viewed the e *pa£ B and concluded which !s

endorsed in the report of Messrs Boulter and Muntz: “All the returns show that the people are enjoying their prosperity and that more people are sharing to a larger extent in the increasing national income. If that were not so, it would be idle to talk of ‘better times.’ ” That squares with the statement by Messrs Boulter and Muntz that “internally the policy adopted by the Government has been responsible for increasing the amount of money in circulation and raising the spending power of the people.” SIMPLE FACTS PRESENTED. But Messrs Boulter and Muntz are not interested in New Zealand’s internal politics like the National Party’s propaganda departments and the Tory newspaper editors, so they present the simple facts in their report. The report, consisting of 142 printed pages, reviews New Zealand’s economic and commercial conditions in a most thorough manner. The facts it contains will give the business community in the United Kingdom a better understanding of the policy of the New Zealand Labour Government and the results of that policy than they would be likely to obtain from the columns of the anti-Labour newspapers.