N.Z. MONEY SYSTEM

Grey River Argus, 14 March 1939, Page 10

N.Z. MONEY SYSTEM

NEED OF BUYING POWER Prime Minister Answers Opposition Leader WELLINGTON, March 11. Another request to the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. Savage) to define the changes he proposes to make in the money system, is made in a statement by the Leader of the Opposition (the Hon. Adam Hamilton). “My plain question remains unanswered: ‘What are the details of the recent announcement by Mr Savage that he is about to change the money system?”’ said Mr Hamilton. Is the Prime Minister so involved with the financial embarrassment his top-heavy schemes and past extravagances have brought upon him. it that, having made his time-worn false comparison between the depression and recent years of great prosperity, he hopes he has evaded the issue. In any case, I refuse to be confused by his evason. . „ . “It is an age-long experience, he said “that the first thing needful for promoting a revolution is some symbolic object of hate. Here in New Zealand, Mr Savage and those of his colleagues who are bent on ‘changing the money system’ have begun, in the style of all revolutionaries, by setting up as objects for the people’s hatred certain imaginary figures stigmatised as ‘money bugs’ and ‘dividend kings. Who are these awful people? Where do they live? “Mr Savage never condescends to say who he is aiming at, because he well knows that the ‘money bugs’ in a country like this Dominion are the Post Office depositors, the holders of life and industrial insurance policies, friendly society members, and other similar groups of people whose aggregate small savings is invested in our primary and secondary production. “When he gets down to ‘tin tacks Mr Savage finds that these small savers are the ‘money bugs’ blocking the way to any change which involves the confiscation of their savings by the process of inflation. It is not without significance, therefore, that Mr Savage talks of getting somebody in the nature of a chemist to show him how to deal with these ‘money bugs.’ “Mr Savage is receiving support from his colleague, Mr Semple, who is also trying to work up an agitation against an imaginary person whom he calls the ‘dividend king.’ This figure has also been created in order to generate hatred among those Labour supporters who do not pause to think. It is well to remember that the people who receive dividends are the thousands of company shareholders whose savings are invested in various industrial enterprises. Many of these shareholders started to ‘build a nation, and made a good commencement, too, long before Mr Semple and Mr Savage ever thought of coming to New Zealand to give them a hand. “All this vagueness and inconsistency on the part of Mr Savage and his colleagues should cause those people who either have, or look forward to having, a little money of their own, to ask Mr Savage to define the changes in the monetary system which he proposes to make. He has talked vaguely about it while he has been spending all the savings which he could command. “The existing money system was good enough to use until he began to see the end of the reserves which past governments had left for him. It is because he has eaten up nearly all those reserves which are left in London and New Zealand that Mi Savage now reverts to type, and, like a good and muddled Socialist, tries to ■save his bacon’ by dazzling his followers with the gaudy glitter of a theoretical scheme of ‘changing the money system’.” WELLINGTON, March 11. “My simple suggestion in reference to the money system was that it should provide a buying power that would equate production, and that unless that is brought about there will not be much advantage to the people of this country in increased production,” said the Prime Minister (the Hon. M. J. Savage), in reply to the Hon. Adam Hamilton. “If Mr Hamilton thinks we are going to use the Government printing press, or any other printing establishment, for the purpose of making people rich, he will have some more thinking to do.

“People can only increase their standard of life by producing the things that go to make that standard in greater quantities. All that I am asking is that those increases should also be reflected in the incomes of the people. If Mr Hamilton knows of any other way to do it, I would be glad to have his advice. He says that the existing money system was good enough until we saw the end of the reserves. Mr Hamilton and his colleagues should be the last to talk about reserves, because when they were in office they pawned everything that they could get their hands on, including returned soldier securities, in. order to establish a surplus in the Public Accounts. Now he says I am trying to ‘save my bacon.’ I wonder where Mr Hamilton got that phrase. No doubt it was supplied by his newly-appointed secretary.

“I am trying to save the people of New Zealand from the. experience of 1931 to 1935 by asking them to establish industry on a more solid foundation than it has ever had, and the people are responding to it; and if Mr Hamilton and his colleagues met them next week in the way of a General Election he would find that out. However, I am far too busy to waste any further time in replying to the prophets of gloom. “There is. nothing top-heavy; we are laying the foundation that Mr Hamilton and his colleagues neglected for years, and we are getting the help of all those with constructive minds engaged in industry. I wonder what Mr Hamilton has to say to that. What did he and his colleagues do towards building New Zealand? He is not giving much assistance to-day.”

Mr Savage said he had never had much time for the prophets of gloom and he had less to-day, when New Zealand was calling for something positive rather than destructive, "According to Mr- Hamilton’s definition. I am one of the 'money bugs,’ because he says himself that they are Post Office depositors, holders of life and industrial insurance policies, and members of friendly societies,” he continued. “We have done more to

fnake it possible for the so-called ‘money bugs’ to invest in primary and secondary industry than ever Mr Hamilton has done. If he looks at the latest statistics he will see that the incomes of the people have risen since this Government came into power. ;

“He makes reference to alleged confiscation of savings by a process of inflation. There is no process of inflation, but during Mr Hamilton’s term of office those who had savings in the Post Office were not allowed to get relief work while those savings existed. I wonder what he will say to that”