NEW ZEALAND MALIGNED.
New Zealanders, reading the description, of their country's distress, as published in the Labour Daily, Sydney, can only reflect that it is necessary to go abroad to learn about one's home. The article, as summarised in a cable message, contains one or two facts, but they are used, of course, to produce an absolute distortion of the truth. The threatened Budget deficit of £5,000,000 for the current year is as officially stated —threatened in the absence of remedial measures. Why it should be quoted with horror, when a committee of experts found some time ago that the deficits of the Commonwealth and the States combined at the end of this year would be £25,000,000 if drastic action were not taken, it is difficult to decide. The comparison of per capita debt in New Zealand and Australia is approximately correct, though the figures are slightly understated in each instance. But there is this difference between the two countries, that while in New Zealand the provision of adequate sinking funds has been a regular feature of public finance for many years past—the Public Debt Extinction Act, 1910, and the Repayment of Public Debt Act, 1925, are two outstanding pieces of legislation—until the creation of the Federal Loan Council and the Financial Agreement of 1927, miK-h Australian debt was without any repayment provision at all. Moreover, the past ten years have seun New Zealand enjoy favourable trade balances aggregating £50,000,000 ; during ' this period unfavourable balances have been a commonplace in Australian statistics. It cannot be pretended that New Zealand's borrowing in post-war years, especially in the past two or three years, has been as prudent or restrained as austere canons of public finance demand, but to suggest that the position compares unfavourably with that of Australia is grotesque. The reception of the last New, Zealand loan was disappointing. Australia cannot borrow abroad at present on any terms whatsoever. That is the main difference' between the two countries. As to the allegations of "Niemeverism," destitution, and, in effect, food riots, they are obvious attempts to divert attention from the condition of New South Wales under ism." The real point is not what New Zealand is at present—with no Niemeyerism—but what the country would be in a very short time under "Langism." The Labour Daily has provided the description.
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20930, 21 July 1931, Page 8
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387NEW ZEALAND MALIGNED. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20930, 21 July 1931, Page 8
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