AUSTRALIA OF TO-DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11409, 4 January 1923, Page 6

AUSTRALIA OF TO-DAY

COUNTRY NOW RECOVERING AFTERMATH OF “DISASTROUS POST-WAR BOOM.” STEADY PROGRESS IN 1922. Reviewing the past year, an Australian financial authority states: —“It is gratifying to be able to record that during 192 a there has been in Australia steady progress towards those safe, profitable conditions of calm normality that everyone interested in trade, finance, industry, and production have been anxiously looking lor since the crash of 1921 of the tremondous and disastrous post-war boom of reckless expenditure, unproductive speculative buying and manufacture, and monetary inflation. True, the progress has been exasperatingly slow, and there have been backslidings and disappointment®. Also, it must be admitted that there are still branches of our commercial and industrial life that ore yet stagnant and busting. . . : but, with uplifting and progressing fluences in other directions, these branches also must sooner or later be brought within the recuperating influences commencing to operate in our midst.- The whole body politic will then be restored to full health and vigoui-r—a greater health and vigour, in fact., than' Australia ever has witnessed previously; for have we not all manv large industries established during the war, and the immense expansions of manufacture and trade that the ‘hot-house’ conditions of the war period enabled our progressive commercial leaders to build up. It is really because some of the war-time industries- were of ‘conservatory’ growth that they now are wilting under the fierce 1 blasts of foreign competition. COOTS MUST COME DOWN. There is only one remedy, and that is for Australia to readjust working costs just as the competing countries have done. The readjustments in Great Britain and America were swift and effective. The price of coal in England, to take one illustration, was cut “to the hone.” To effect that, owners forwent their profits and the miners were forced: to aooept wage reductions which, unfortunately lor them, were out of all proportion to the declining cent of living. But cheap coal is the life blood of industry, and, with cheap coal, England’s industrial life awoke to new activity. Cheap coal meant all-round cheapening of costs. Factories, railways, gas and electric power plants all felt the. benefit, and, in the interests of trade expansion, passed those benefits on _ to their customers, and so the circle widened. True, England’s trade expansion has not been allowed to make its fullest expression owing to the sad fact that her best and nearest customers, the thronging millions on the Continent of Europe, have been, and still are, too impoverished to purchase heir goods. „ EUROPE AND THE U.S.A. “The unstable equilibrium of Europe—the most unsatisfactory feature from the viewpoint of world politics and world- trade- —is. still greatly m evidence, and. the position day by day grows worse instead of. better. , . . • The hell’s cauldron into which Gerr many’s megalomaniac ambitions flung the whole World is still simmering, j brewing nauseous decoctioiis,. and giving forth obnoxious fumes. - Only a day or so ago, Mr Bonar Law Solemnly declared that Germany was an the brink of a collapse. If France should push her into the abyss by her insistence upon the' ‘pound of flesh’ set down in the Versailles treaty, Franoe herself probably will suffer equally as greatly, and the whole world will be badly shaken. AMERICA’S “GOLD CORNER.” , “It seems to us* viewing the grave problem from this great distance, and, of course, dependent upon newspapers and periodicals for a knowledge,of the multiplicity of issues Involved, that there is only one solution, and thatlies in the hands of our great! Eng-lish-speaking sister, the United States of America. The wonderful resources of this matter-of-fact commercialised country werte so drawn upon by Great Britain and the Allies from the commencement of the war to the time of America’s tardy entry therein that she hae laid almost the whole world in financial thrall. America is owed some two thousand millions of pounds, with accrued interest, in addition to having more than half the world’s known gold supply ‘rusting’ in great underground vaults. “A| great part of the debt is duo by Great Britain, who. in turn, is owed a corresponding amount by her Allies. They cannot pay England, which makes it awkward —but not impossible—for her to' pay America. She staggered the Americans recently by, paying £10,000,000 of interest, thus adding more gold to the already vast hoard. The Americans cannot eat it, and they cannot buy anything with ft. They are not even allowed to see and admire itj and they are beginning to wake up to the fact that their gold •‘corner’ ..brings no grist to their own mill. France frankly admits she cannot pay America unless and until Germany pays the bill for reparations. Germany says she cannot pay, that one cannot get blood out of a stone. There is the chain of circumstances shackling the nations and their .financial and industrial rehabilitation. America could smash it up by one stroke of the pen, cancelling the commitments of her , debtors, making the condition that they also forgive each other their debts. Wha.t a great tearing up of LG.U.’s. Thank God, those are wiped out, the nations could reverently and relievedly say, and they cOuld start at once rebuilding their broken and tottering domestic edifices. America would be the greatest gainer. TEAR UP THE 1.0.U.’5. “The vital question is, ‘Will she realise-her opportunity and grasp it?’ The preseht suggested American loan to Germany of £20,000,000 is only temporising with a momentous prolitem. There is no doubt but that the great heart of the United States heats true, but jthe eternal hustle afteh the ‘Almighty Dollar,’ the millions of hyphenated Americans, and the absorption- in domestic affairs, prevent its beating from being heard in the international 'sphere. It took the grim tragedy of the ‘Lusitania’ to quicken the national conscience sufficiently to bring America into the war. Will she await another and greater catastrophe on this occasion before she departs from her selfish, isolated attitude? THE NEW EUROPE WOULD WANT OUR PRODUCTS. “In the wonderful impetus riven to trade by a new- and solvent Europe, Australia • (and also, ‘of course, New Zealand) would benefit largely. Our wool, wheat, meat, metals, butter, fruit, hides and other primary products would, come immediately into great demand, and our secondary industries would reap their reward also. Unfortunately, in Australia, our urn-

gross towards readjustments in working costs has been slow. No real efforts have been made to reduce.. the cost of living; money to borrow is almost as dear as during the post-war boom; coal remains at extortionately high prices; wages in the industries qffecting*,the cost of living have hardly been altered; wages generally show little reduction; working hours in some oases lhave reverted to 48 hours weekly; retailers, cling to their prices, and often forget to pass on to the consuming public the wholesaler's reductions; costs all round consequently are far too high for many Australian manufacturers to compete , profitably with the products of outsiders, despite a hirii tariff wall and an extra rampart in, special cases in the form of a dumping duty. Until all those concerned, including arbitration judiciaries and the Labour unions, tackle the problem of cost readjustments, many of our, industries and those dependent' upon them, proprietors and employees alike, will suffer. Under a proper system of readjustments, the’ real wages would equal in purchasing power the higher payments na£*r the regime of