IRKSOME RESTRICTIONS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 30 November 1940, Page 8

IRKSOME RESTRICTIONS

NATION’S INTERESTS NOT ADVANCED CANDID GOVERNMENT CRITIC fUnited Press Association] FEILDING' 29th November. “The resources of this country cannot be. and will not be. developed by bureaucratic decrees which place unnecessary and irksome restrictions on the power of the individual to import, to manufacture, and to buy what he wants.” said Dr O. C. Mazengarb, speaking in Feildlng last night. “One of the fundamental principles of economics is that a nation’s interests are not advanced by shutting out the material things which it cannot or ' does not produce for itself. Tariffs; and other import restrictions can be • justified only as temporary expedients I to enable industries to become established. The great vice of the Government’s present policy is that these re- j strictions are announced as a perman- j ent part of our national economy. POSITION TO-DAY i “The present economic position is that there is no shortage of money—paper money,” said Dr Mazengarb. “In ! 1935 we had goods and too little money.! j To-day we have money, but not enough ! ; goods. You may see the placards ‘clos- ; ing down owin~ to import restrictions’! S on various shop windows, and nobody ' | else wants the shop if he has no goodsl to sell. It is quite easy for the State ! to print banknotes, but it can’t expect people to eat or wear them. , “The apparently simple expedient of , increasing the buying power of the i people has failed to work because ours : is not a monetary problem. The Gov- , eminent now realises this, but appears quite unable to stop issuing further credits. As its debit balances at the ' Reserve Bank go up and up, so does the 1 purchasing power of money go down I and down.” OBJECTIVES DEFINED < “Let us see the immediate objectives on which all right-thinking people agree. The first is to win the war, the second is to house and settle the returning men after the war. “There has been criticism of the Government’s war effort. While we would like to have seen even a more vigorous war effort, we should at least be glad that the Government did take the gloves off to the Communists and other bodies whose ideas are subversive of national interests. “II is in regard to the method of implementing the second great objective that we are in serious conflict with the Labour Party. After fighting for freedom, after fighting the evils of National Socialism on the other side of the equator, it would be small comfort to them to come back here to State farms. State houses. State jobs, needless bureaucracy, and an inflated currency. That must be the point of impact between the policy of the National Parly and the Socialists. “The issue is therefore clear. Are we to have more and more restrictions till we drift or are pushed into a state of complete socialisation? Or are we to build our economy on a basis of greater freedom under which we can reduce our national indebtedness and the heavy taxation demands which are already stifling individual effort?”