ECONOMIC FRONT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24449, 7 November 1940, Page 11

ECONOMIC FRONT

STABILITY CONFERENCE GIVING EFFECT TO DECISIONS EARLY ACTION DESIRABLE (Special to Daily Times) NEW PLYMOUTH, Nov. 6. The desirability of the speedy adoption by the Government of the recommendations of Ihe National Economic Conference was stressed by Mr W. S. Mac Gibbon in the closing portion of the presidential address which he delivered to-day before the annual conference of the Associated Chambers of Commerce. Other points to which he directed attention were the need for a curtailment of local body expenditure and the incongruity of party politics at the present juncture. “ One of the most valuable recommendations in the report,” Mr MacGibbon said. “ relates to monetary policy, and the clear indication that is given that the maintenance of the real value of the money unit is an essential prerequisite to any attempts at stabilising wages, costs and prices. Reserve Bank Credit “ Everyone knows,” he said, “ that there has been an extensive creation of credit by the Reserve Bank without the backing -'of goods or productive assets. The present is not a time for recrimination about that. We have to take the facts as they are if we are going to. deal with them effectively. There are, no doubt, those outside the Economic Conference who appreciate the repercussions that would ensue were an attempt made to repay those Reserve Bank advances over a short period. At the same time, so far as future advances are concerned, we have the report of the conference setting out a proviso, under the heading of ‘ Stabilisation of Prices,’ that, unless the goods value of ihe £ remains constant, then all attempts at stabilisation must fail. “The recommendation on public expenditure raises a point I would like to mention.” Mr Mac Gibbon said. “While the Government has it in its own hands to effect reductions and economies, local bodies, which were also recommended to reduce expenditure, are numerous as well as autonomous, so that it is up to each one separately to do its part. I hope that it will not be a case of the local bodies each waiting on the other to take steps in this matter, but that they will all apply themselves conscientiously to reducing the substantial burden on the community represented by the cost of local government. The Common Cause “Three main points arose from the report of the conference,” Mr MacGibbon said, “each of which carries its lesson to the community. These were as follows; 1. The Working Committee of the conference did not try to .decide as between conflicting theories of nolitical economy: its recommendations were a reconciliation, for war purposes and for the war period, of different points of view. 2. Dominating the deliberations of the committee was the common opinion that each interest should ask what it could give for the common cause, rather than what it could get for itself, 3. The war strength of the nation is the sum total of the efforts of all individuals working in co-opera-tion, and not one ounce more. “As far as the Chambers of Commerce are concerned,” Mr Mac Gibbon said. “I hold the firm opinion that the present is not the time for standing off and shooting at long range; that is not a pre-emptive right of any one side, and in the meantime the war effort suffers. As for party politics, whether or not party adherents consider they have the right to keep party politics alive, the Chambers of Commerce arc no place for party politics at any time, and decidedly not in wartime. We can and must go ahead and do our job without party politics.”