DOMINION'S HANDICAPS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22847, 30 September 1937, Page 10

DOMINION'S HANDICAPS

Much has been heard from Ministers of the Crown about the floodtide of prosperity, but in the fairway of the channel stands at a dangerous height the rock of unemployment, a rock which must be removed to ensure the safety of financial navigation. The height of the Dominion's unemployment figures cannot be explained away, especially when comparison is made with those of other portions of the Empire which are enjoying buoyant conditions not because of a high-wage short-hours policy, but owing to good prices for the products of farm and factory. It is a most significant fact that the Prime Minister of Australia is able to claim that employment is back to the pre-depression level, a claim that is fully supported by statistics, and proposes to revive the system of assisted migration from Britain. New Zealand might have been in the same enviable position. Australia has possessed no exclusive advantages. But the Government of New Zealand in its eagerness to force the pace of the upward economic trend which had its first impulse in Britain established wage and hour standards that have so frustrated local industry that Australia is now able to raid Dominion markets which have long been regarded as its own. Further, consumption has not increased at the anticipated rate, because of the rise in prices. There has been a definite check to New Zealand's recovery. In the matter of taxation the New Zealand Government in pursuance of its spending policy gives no relief, yet that of New South Wales is able to grant substantial reductions and make important exemptions which represent a cut of 55 per cent over the whole field of emergency taxes from the rates of 1931-32. When compared with the Australian picture, that painted by Mr. Nash lacks life and colour.