NEED FOR HELPING BRITAIN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 30 August 1945, Page 4

NEED FOR HELPING BRITAIN

QUESTION OF CAR PURCHASES (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) Wellington, Aug. 29. “If the people of New Zealand want to help Britain one of the best things they ’ can do is to' change from American cars to cars matoe in England,” said Mr T. H. McCombs (Government. Lyttelton) in his Budget speech in the House of Representatives.

An Opposition member: Will they get a license? Mr McCombs said that licenses for importing British cars would be given in preference to American cars. It had been suggested by the member for Tauranga (Mr F. W. Doidge) that New Zealand was locking out British goods. The position was that for many years the Government had imported from Great Britain considerably more goods than it could afford to buy. The Government had decided that its duty was to reduce excessive borrowing. It was not intended to continue a system of importing goods that the country could not afford to pay for. Exchange had to be rationed in some way. He believed it was better for the people as a whole to decide rather than the banks, which had assisted, by exchange, the importation of luxury goods. Everything that New Zealand required and that could be bought from England would be purchased. The United Kingdom had come out of the war stripped to the bone financially and New Zealand must see that all the trade possible was carried on between the two countries. Exchange and import control would have to be continued. England proposed to follow the policy of import control. Exchange control must be used so that New Zealand would have sufficient money to meet its commitments. By keeping on both import and exchange control thcr people would get value for their money.