N.Z. Truth VALUELESS

NZ Truth, Issue 1304, 11 December 1930, Page 6

N.Z. Truth

VALUELESS

THE MATIOISAI. BAPKP, THURSDAY, DECEMBER* 11, 1930.

THE proposal for a moratorium deserves to receive but scant consideration from the Government, for although conditions are admittedly bad and the immediate outlook anything but rosy, there is no valid reason for the adoption of such a drastic step. Indeed, it is a very great pity that the suggestion has even been made. , It will necessarily have an adverse effect on our prestige and finanoial standing abroad, and will thus do much harm. At the present juncture, we require to be entirely dissociated m the minds of overseas business men and financiers from Australia, but the moratorium proposal is likely to have the opposite effect. New. Zealand's position is not nearly as desperate as many people would have us believe. We are suffering from a drastically curtailed national income, and we have entered upon a period of temporary financial stringency. But we have successfully passed through similar slump periods m the past; It is merely a question of readjusting ourselves to the much lower price-level, The process is bound to occupy some considerable time, but it is unlikely to be* prolonged to the extent which has been represented. Artificial methods of adjustment, such as that of a moratorium, will get us nowhere. There is work to be done that is far more urgent and which will be of fair greater benefit to the community — work that will lead to a definite re-adjustmenti of values to suit the altered world pricelevel. ' Harder work, greater produce tion, more economy—those are the factors which most urgently require attention and which are going to have the greatest effect towards a rapid^ recovery.