HIGH EXCHANGE RATE

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 23 August 1935, Page 7

HIGH EXCHANGE RATE

Contention That National Income Was Not Expanded LABOUR LEADER’S VIEWS REPLY TO SIR A. RANSOM (By Telegraph—Press Association,). CAMBRIDGE, To-day. The statement made by Sir Alfred Ransom at Dunedin that the raising of the exchange .had expanded the national spending power by at least £lO,000,000 was disputed by Mr M. J. Savage, Leader of the Opposition, on addressing a large audience at Cambridge last night. Mr Savage said the raising of the exchange only transferred the, existing spending power from some pockets into others. The aggregate amount of spending power was not expanded. In .the last -ten years -dairy farmers |iad doubled their output, but the- cash returns remained about the same. It seemed right to suggest “that the iiic creased production was useless unless the benefit reached the people, including the farmers, by means of increased purchasing power. ' . : . Mr Savage said Sir Alfred. Ransom had quite overlooked the fact that wages and salaries had beeil reduced by not' less than £100,000,000 since 1930. It was not very difficult for even Sir Alfred to see that- his exaggerated bill of costs could easily have been met if wages had not been reduced during a period of increasing production. In the opinion of the Labour Party, the war debts between nations should be cancelled, and if Labour became the Government, it would enter into imhiediate negotiations to achieve this purpose: