SHAVIAN OPINIONS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 94, 4 April 1934, Page 7

SHAVIAN OPINIONS

CURRENCY AND QUOTAS Debtors-Who Bilk Creditors THE MIGRATION QUESTION (By T*l«fraph-Pr«M Association.) WELLINGTON, April 4. Asked by the “Poet” whether currency depreciation was an equitable way of assisting farmers and the community, Mr. Bernard Shaw replied: “Currency depreciation enables all debtors to eheat their creditors to the extent of the depreciation. When the fanner bilks his mortgagee he can hand some or all of his gain on to the consumer in reduced prices and the farm may become comparatively solvent at the mortgagee’s expense. This may be good fun for the fanner, but it may be ruin for the mortgagee and penury for widows, unmarried daughters. pensioners. retired workers and all who are living on fixed incomes only Just enough to support them.

“It would be ridiculous to eall such a transaction equitable. All Governments should aim at stability of currency and regard and variation as a misfortune to be averted at all costs.”

Asked whether, if quotas raised prices in Britain, there would be any reaction against the policy by British workers, Mr. Shaw said: “Why should there be! The working class instinctively likes high prices because they mean high wages. England has a perfect right to determine how much butter—or how little—she will buy from New Zealand and how much from Denmark. The day of unregulated, take-your-chance imports is past.” Other replies were: “Migration is a serious question. People who use it to get out of money troubles caused by their own incompetence are unfit to govern. Do not let the British or env other Government dump on New Zealand the people whose labour it is too lacy or too stupid to organise productively, to say nothing of the unemployables.

“Belief works, as such, should be as obsolete as the treadmill. The productive organisation of labour should pay for itself and also repay the initial capital, which should, therefore, be raised by publie loan and be a very safe investment.”

Mr. Bernard Shaw arrived by motor from Palmerston North to-day and proceeds this afternoon to Picton.