MR LEFEAUX AND FINANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25426, 6 January 1944, Page 4

MR LEFEAUX AND FINANCE

Sir,—ln his recent address to business men Mr Lefeaux expressed a wish to see the people of New Zealand enjoying as high a standard of living as possible, but added significantly, “It must be earned, not dictated.” This may have been presented to his hearers as an aphorism, but it is only loose talk, for the real meaning of the words quoted is the exact opposite of that intended. Nothing can be earned except by work, but Mr Lefeaux would have us forbidden, on peril of inflation, to employ our reserves of man-power, material, machinery, and motive-power except in so far as their use can be paid for out of private savings or by credit borrowed from private sources. Thus he urges the continuance of the present restrictive financial methods, which in practice have prevented industry from functioning to the full extent possible, and so have imposed upon the people a lower standard of living than could easily be attained were the earning power of industry not confined within the narrow limits set by the money market. Therefore what Mr Lefeaux really tells us, though he says the opposite, is that the standard of living in New Zealand must be dictated by the money market before the people can be allowed to earn it. Mr Lefeaux must know, none better, that borrowed money can never be repaid in the total sense, but that the aggregate indebtedness, with its cumulus of expanding costs, rising prices, and further loans, is all the time pressing more and more heavily on the back of the nation as it staggers along towards a hopeless future, and it is mere lip service on his part to express his desire for the nation’s betterment while, in the same breath, urging the continuance of conditions that are more likely—nay, certain—to make things worse.—l am, etc., S. January 5.