PUBLIC OPINION

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11772, 7 March 1924, Page 9

PUBLIC OPINION

IMPORTATION OF MOTOR VEHICLES. (To the Editor “N.Z. Times.”) Sir, —With the prospect of money becoming dearer, warnings against extravagance have been uttered by wellknown public men, and rightly so, too. But why always drag in the motorcar? It is true that recent importations have been very large, but it is far from correct to include motor vehicles in the broad sense in “extravagances,” andi the impression, existing rn many minds and emphasised by Sir Harold Beauchamp and others that motor-car means a “joy-riding” vehicle, is erroneous. It may considerably surprise many of your readers to know tfiat statistics exist showing that over 90 per cent, of the motor vehicles in use to-day are classified as commercial vehicles. Now, I am not interested in the motor trade, but I own a car, which 1 use partly for pleasure, hut mainly for business. I look upon it as a sound commercial proposition, and strongly object to be considered by implication as guilty of extravagance as the; owner of it. The motor-oar, used intelligently, is just as much an economical necessity as, say, the telephone or the typewriter, and if the statistics showing that over ninety per cent of motor vehicles are used' mainly for business purposes are correct, I think the importation figures so much objected to in some quarters are more a matter for congratulation than Tegret. My personal experience as the owner of a modest car, is that I *and my family enjoy better health, we are more interested, I have been able to considerably speed up mv business, and. incidentally, I have the somewhat doubtful pleasure of paying out a larger portion of my income for income tax. No! The extravagance is not in motor-cars —first look to the Government, city councils, and local bodies to reduce real waste. “PROGRESS.”

THE GOLD STANDARD.

Sir, —Modem writers on social and political economy say, “That finance and taxation are the unsol red problems of to-day, the unanswered questions, social bones of contention which have gendered wars in the past and the cause of industrial strife and social wreckage of the present.” The more advanced of throe writers alec say, “That as labour produces all real wealth, a labour unit of values, is the only true unit, upon which to base dredit,” and, “that when our currency is based upon the labour cost of producing commodities, the value of essential needs of life will be stabilised—disci pa ting social unrest, and forever solving rents, labour and tax problems.” The Minister of Finance in this Dominion should, therefore, stem borrow ing high-priced money for advances to settlors and finance the men on the land with State credit notes based upon the true labour cost of producing wools, meat, grain, butter, cheese, etc., and make these State credit notes the sole legal-tender currency ot New Zealand. The gold standard of value can only be maintained by fixing the relative value of gold to man’s primary needs of life. Therefore, the basis of security for our medium of exchanges should be food and clothing products. For legal-tender currency purposes credit notes should be issued on the basis of the following costs of production, via.: Wool Is 6d per lb; butter-fat Is 6d per lb; cheese 9d per lb; lamb 9d per lb; mutton 6d' per lb; beef 3d per lb; wheat 2Jd oer lb, etc. By making this table of values the gold standard (the equivalent value of gold in such goods) land would automatically be valued according to its

capacity to produce the above goods at the above prices. The high price of money at Homs is a good reason to stop borrowing there, and rely upon the issue of a currency of our own for the production of wealth from our lands. The revenue that would accrue to the State from the issue of this money would solve the tax problem end foster the production or wealth on a maximum scale absorbing all available labour in this country. 'Values would be always stable when stabilised prices are fixed for all essential goods. The speculators, the bulls and the. hears who now manipulate stock exchange' and finance markets would have no chance to carry on their nefarious profiteering by juggling with the prices of land and commodities and the pricer of money. It is to be hoped that the Minister of Finanoe will be advised by the capable heads of the Treasury and other* financial departments of State in this country, who favour a stabilised currency and stabilised prices for commodities in order that the cost of living shall not fluctuate in the senseless manner in which this most important factor in our economic life now .varies from day to day. F. T. MOOR®. Dannevirke, February 25th, 1924.