SERIOUS ECONOMIC CRISIS THREATENING AUSTRALIA

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6921, 29 May 1929, Page 7

SERIOUS ECONOMIC CRISIS THREATENING AUSTRALIA

Borrowing No Solution

Staple Prices Falling and indnstries lip Against it Australian Press Association. Received Tuesday, 11.5 p.m. CANBERRA, May 2S. The Prime Minister’s speech to the Premiers’ Conference to-day contained a note of warning in regard to the serious economic crisis threatening Australia. The situation was one, he said, which could not fail to cause anxiety. “The prices of staple commodities, wool and wheat, have declined. Our surplus products have become unprofitable and the position of our secondary industries becoming more and more difficult, owing to ever-increasing competition from overseas. “The cumulative effect is noticeable in the growth of unemployment and the increasing complexity of our every-day problems. We have attempted to foster prosperity in recent years by the free use of borrowed money, something like £300,000,000 having been spent since 1920 on capital works. “The result of this huge expenditure has not been such as to warrant its indefinite continuance upon the basis which has prevailed in the past. Any further burden of taxation would defeat its own object by reducing the value of production and increasing the already high overhead costs. “The true solution, therefore, will have to come from the increasing prosperity of the people by augmenting avenues of employment and providing opportunities for itfc expansion.”