LOSS ON STATE HOUSES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23770, 25 September 1940, Page 12

LOSS ON STATE HOUSES

Sir, —-It is not now even pretended that the State houses produce any net revenue, and I sec no use in continuing the discussion when J.C. has 110 contribution to offer except the monotonous repetition of this peculiar hallucination about two different kinds of money.

Almost as extraordinary is J.C.'s assertion that he would invest his capital on the vote of 1000 men and women taken at random off the street. 1 can quite believe that, as suggested, they might be good judges of beer; but my faith fails me when the business for decision is njoney and investment. ]f J.C. cannot s_ee that payment of treble wages in money of one-third the value leaves the recipient 110 better off, I cannot help him. Our Government department—still referred to as "the Reserve' Bank" —has already quadrupled the not'e issue. At one period the Germans had done likewise. but the decline of their money got completely out of hand. So may ours, and without any similar excuse. To those addicted to lofty flights of imagination and to simple faith in enchanted money, I fear I can offer no cure. And indeed it might be unkind to disturb their dreams of Utopia when there is abundance of money available without any interest, through the local Reserve Bank and plenty of houses at half-rental through its Housing Department. E. Earle Vaile.