FOOD, NOT MONEY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26780, 25 May 1948, Page 4

FOOD, NOT MONEY

NEEDS OF STARVING PEOPLE WASTAGE IN DOMINION Daily Times Special Service INVERCARGILL. May 24. “The plain fact is that the people of New Zealand appear to prefer cosmetics to clothes and horse racing to housing and fancy goods to fuel and food." said Mr A. P. O'Shea, general secretary of Federated Farmers of New Zealand, in an address at the Southland provincial conference today. “At the present time, edible food is being destroyed in our freezing works because we, as a people, are to lazv to put forward the extra effort to save it. Edible offals are going into the digesters instead of into the stomachs of the starving people in other parts of the world and we are making appeals for money to assist these people when their crying need is for food. “ We have queer ideas about money and also about markets, bid particularly in regard to money,” he said. “We have a belief that we can indulge in inflationary policies, but that we can correct the results of our indulgence by taking measures to deal with the trouble that we have created for ourselves. Would not the better idea be to stop the trouble at its root? Having indulged in a bout of inflation, we set up price tribunals and land sales courts to try to ameliorate the effects of our previous actions. “Because of our encouragement of unprofitable activity, farming is short of most of the things it requires to increase production. At the recent conference of the Labour Party in Dunedin it was suggested that there should be an examination of the question of primary production and its decrease or lack of increase. Most of us could give the reasons now, which are that farming is short of the things that it requires to step up production and oL the labour necessary to do the job.” “The unpalatable truth is that, as a nation, we are growing more and more to dislike the idea of work.” Mr O’Shea said. It was regrettable that we should be adopting this attitude just at a time when there was before us an opportunity to gain markets such as had ever been available to us in the past. „ , “ The only real solution of most of our financial problems is to get back to free exchange, and no one will suggest that this is not desirable unless no thought at all has been given to the problem." said Mr O'Shea. “ 1 do not think that anyone will claim that our exchange control has been satisfactory, and this is not the. fault of the Administration. I do not believe that the wisest, ablest and most capable team of men in New Zealand could administer any exchange and import control system satisfactorily. They cannot be expected to anticipate and interpret the widely varying wants of more than a million individuals, especially in a world where the products of industry are changing so rapidly.”