COSTLESS CREDIT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22437, 5 June 1936, Page 10

COSTLESS CREDIT

Whether the Chairman of Committees w&s right in rejecting Mr. Atmoro's amendment, aimed at supplying the State Advances Corporation with costless credit, on the ground that it involved an appropriation, or whether the Speaker was right in ruling it out of order becausp it did not come within the 'scope of the bill before the House, does not matter vqry much. Either ruling can be hold to be justified. The real importance of the intervention by 'the Chair was that it saved the Labour Party the embarrassment of having to divide on the question. No more than embarrassment was involved—not Iho defeat of the Government—boonuso the Opposition would have helped to defeat the amendment. Some Labour members are committed to the system that goes under such names as costless credit, social credit,' or Douglas credit, although there is doubt as to how many they are. A division would have served to identify them and to inform the electors how the House stood on the general question. The anxiety of the Prime Minister to avoid committing himself, quite apart from members of his party, was shown by his deft avoidance of a definition of usury as opposed to interest. Mr. Nash's readiness to face the issue offered a fine contrast and his definition was interesting. "If interest can be justified ethically," he said, "it would be on the grounds that it is a payment to a person who, having worked to create wealth, did not desire that wealth for himself and was willing to have it used for the good of others."