AUSTRALIA'S POSITION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21716, 3 February 1934, Page 13

AUSTRALIA'S POSITION

CORNER NOT YET TURNED SIR THOMAS HENLEY'S VIEW "All wo have done, tlianks to the wool boom and tho inflated value of gold, is to sink a little lower into the mire of public debt," stated Sir Thomas Henley, of Sydney, who is making the round trip from Sydney to Auckland and back by the Wanganella, in an interview yesterday. Sir Thomas expressed tho opinion that the Commonwealth and tho State Governments in Australia, as well as the municipal bodies, were burdening tho country with an aggregate administrative cost in salaries which was 60 per cent heavier on the people than 20 years ago. Tho situation arose from the fact that tho younger generation of voters would support no candidate or policy which was not popular, and vote-catching in character, regardless of its effects upon business and public finance. When ope was told that Australia, and especially New South Wales, had "turned tho corner," it had to be understood that such inventions were just cheery optimism. "We have not turned tTie corner," stated Sir Thomas. "Industrial arbitration and political meddling still hold us in the grip of insomnia. Social credit will not help us. We have had too much expansion of credit in Australia, and we still wallow in it. "Until those of all ages who are willing to work are given useful and profitable employment, and until we as a nation can sell in the markets of the world on a firm competitive basis, we cannot fairly claim that wo havo solved our problems. Wo are suffering from under-consumption, inefficiency in many directions, and from costly distribution, all arising from political causes, from tho buying of votes and from industrial conditions that still suggest a form of slavery." In Sir Thomas' view, New Zealand had not made a backward step in suspending the operation of the Arbitration Act. He considered the Government's action had helped to free industry in the Dominion, and he expected it, to result in a gain of industrial liberty.