WAGES AND PENSIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25941, 6 September 1945, Page 6

WAGES AND PENSIONS

REDUCED BY INFLATION ECONOMY OUT OF BALANCE (F.0.P.R.) WELLINGTON. Sept. 5. Unless the Minister of Finance restored the balance between purchasing power and real wealth in this country a decline in the value of New Zealand money must follow, said Mr W. A. Sheat (Oppn., Fatea) in the Budget debate in the House of Representatives to-day. That would mean a reduction in wages, pensions, and other payments.

Government members frequently alleged that the Opposition would cut these benefits if it became the Government, Mr Sheat said, but the actual facts were that these payments were being cut. not by a reduction in the monetary sense, but by a decline in the purchasing power of money. All the members of the House desired to see high levels of income maintained for all sections of the community, Mr Sheat said, but that could not be achieved just by high monetary rewards. All members must be concerned -with maintaining the high value of money by which those incomes were measured, and they must face up to the fact that there was inflation in this country, and that further inflation would cause a serious fall in It was the duty of the House, Mr Sheat added, to set about the task of avoiding any further “ monkeying ” with our monetary mechanism.