GOVERNOR-GENERAL ON ECONOMICS.

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 25 January 1933, Page 4

GOVERNOR-GENERAL ON ECONOMICS.

Lord Bledisloc, in all his public utterances, invariably has something worthwhile to say. In addition to being the holder of the mostr distinguished office in the country, he is a scientist, agriculturist and a first-class thinker yvho refuses to deal in glib generalities'. His speeches on such occasions as the delivery of the Caw thro n Lecture at Nelson last year, or his after-dinner speech at the Napier Chamber of Commerce this week, reveal conclusions arrived at only after clpse study of liis subject. At Napier his subject was the economic crisis and in dealing with it his Excellency showed very clearly thatf his mind is not closed, to newthought on economics. A verbatim report of his statement, shory-s that Lord Bledisloc, while immune to the attraction of half-baked plans for setting the world: to rights, is definitely on the sidcof those yvho believe that the nations have to discard some of the ideas which have served them, well-enough in the .economic sphere until the last. fo.w vears. He described as “grotesque” a situation in which the whole yvorld was faced with (bankruptcy and social upheaval as a result of the hoarding of gold and the consequent interruption of the free floyv of good® and services. Ho apparently goes all the way with those who describe gold as merely the worlds recognised medium of commodity exchange and he implies fairly strongly that he is in sympathy with those who yvould make its function's .more elastic by establishing a closer relationship betyveen this medium' and the growing volume of production. Ho says definitely that the economic system which,

for over a century, has permitted a simultaneous rise in population and the standard of living, is in progress of destruction and its restoration “would appear to involve the establishment

. . . of an international mo.neta.ry standia'rd which will serve the essential requirements of world, trade.”/ In his view the establishment of such a stand:ard seems likely to be secured subject to certain conditions and his enumeration of those conditions provide for the thinking man less familiar with the intricacies of the subject, signs to watch for in the world's struggle for a return to normal conditions. They are: “First, a rise in the general level of commodity \prices throughout the world; .secondly, a reasonable settlement of reparations and war debts; thirdly, the removal of'fiscal and other impediments to 1 the free international exchange of goods and services by which means alone international debts can be paid'; fourthly, the discontinuance of |he hoarding of gold; and fifthly, due economy in the use of gold or whatever bo the future medium or media of exchange, so that the volume of currency and credit may keep pace with the growing volume of production and trade.”