END OF EXTRAVAGANCE.

Opunake Times, 19 August 1932, Page 4

END OF EXTRAVAGANCE.

"NEW ZEALAND POINTS WAY" AS AMERICA SEES IT American newspapers, forced to describe the economic predicament which faces the Uniteu States in consequence of the alldevouring trade slump, are showing a disposition to divert then readers' attention to conditions in other countries, apparently with the object of proving to Americans that the plight of the others is equally bad or worse. The Los Angeles "Times" under the pen of Charles Hayden, recently published a two-column article on the editorial page, descriptive of the parlous times through which New Zealand and Australia are passing, and emphasising the high cost of government in the Antipodean countries. The Chicago "Tribune," one of the greatest journals of the United States, has a trenchant disserta tion under the caption, "New Zealand Points the Way," in which it said 'More Riots have occurred in New Zealand. In one of the latest 4000 demonstrators marched on the Parliament House in Wellington, hurled bricks through the windows and then did what they could to sack stores and shops. The avowed object of demonstration was to protest against the Government's most recent action in reducing the dole and requiring those who receive it to do some work in exchange for the money they get. Recently there were similar riots in Auckland and Dunedin. More disorders are expected. "Riots, disorders and bloodshed are the price which New Zealand is paying for Government extravagance. A Government which taught its people to believe that there is no limit to the amounts which can be borrowed and spent for publics works and public relief is now the victim of its own doctrine. "Borrowing has been carried to the point where credit is all but exhausted. Business is at a low ebb, and no more money than is now being squeezed from the taxpayers can be obtained. The sums which are taken out of private hands to provide the dole are not available for wages and for investment in New Zealand enterprises. The result is increasing insecurity of employment and gradual fall-ing-off in the source of Government revenue. I vicious circle has been created, and not the least important: link in it is a pauperised citizenship which believes that the nation owes a living to its people. "Schooled in Pauperdom" "What has already come to pass in New Zealand is the fate which the Government of the United States is preparing for itself and the American people. An extravagant Government, an insupportable tax programme, a gradual drying up of Government credit, and a citizenship schooled in pauperism cannot fail to produce in the United States what has already been noted on the other side of the world. We, too, are headed for ruin. If we have not yet reached the pass which has been reached in New Zealand, it is only because we started with more surplus capital to exhaust and more diversified sources of national income. "Successively, England, Australia, Newfoundland and New Zealand have produced object-les-sons to the American people in how not to manage public affairs. If Government expenditures are allowed to grow until the capital of the nation is wiped out in the effort to support the Government private ruin and national humilia' tion are unavoidable. The point at which the vicious circle can be attacked successfully if? the point of Government appropriations. It they are kept within bounds, taxation cannot, be confiscatory, and reconstructive force of the nation can be released. If we do not retrench, our fate is sealed.