AN OUTSIDE VIEW.

Otago Witness, Issue 3898, 27 November 1928, Page 36

AN OUTSIDE VIEW.

DOMINION’S LOAN POLICY. “SHEER COMMUNISM,” SAYS AMERICAN. WELLINGTON, November 19. During his visit to San Francisco Mr Robert Bell, managing director of the Lyttelton Times, met a man who was formerly prominent in Dominion business circles, and who continues to watch tne course of events in this country. He made such striking comment on how things appear to him from a distance that the returning New Zealander noted it down. “ In San Francisco I had a conversation with a business man, a native of New Zealand, and he many questions about his native land,” says Air Bell. “He was particularly pleased to hear that the fine climate and beautiful scenery was attracting many tourists, that production from the soil was increasing, and the export trade expanding. When, however, I told him of the governmental mid municipal trading activities he was appalled, and said:— This is sheer Communism. There can only be one end to that. It will destroy all ambition and initiative in business men and gradually lead to the withdrawal of capital from the country. You tell me about the so-called cheap money the Government is finding for mortgages and that private lenders, and also thrift institutions, such as building societies, insurance companies, and the like are being driven out of the mortgage market. That is inevitable. Your Government gets cheap money on the London market by pledging the credit of the country and its citizens, and then proceeds to undercut those citizens by one-half per cent —a most iniquitous state of affairs. Looking ahead a few years, it is conceivable that the Government will be the sole mortgagee. What then? Why, the the mortgagors, the people of the country, will tell the Government of that day that it is only the servant of the people, and that they refuse to pay interest or repay the capital. That’s how it looks to me. As a newspaper man, you should be unceasing in your efforts to “scotch” this iniquitous state of affairs, for I feel that if all these activities of your Government and local bodies continue New Zealand, my native land, will not be worth living in by hardworking, progressive, or selfrespecting people.