ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18236, 3 November 1933, Page 11

ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

Settlement of land FUTURE OF THE DOMINION "We are probably upon the dawn ol' a changed economic system, but among the multitude of proposals and experiments, not one has been settled yet,’ said Mr. Albert Spencer, president of the Auckland Provincial Employers’ Association, in moving the adoption of the report at the annual meeting of the association. It was noteworthy that the general tendency was now to promote land settlement on lines of small holdings, Mr. Spencer said. There was in New Zealand legislation which aimed at settling a large number of those now unemployed on small areas of land on which they eventually would be able to make a living for themselves. In the meantime, if these small settlers had to be partly supported from the unemployment funds, it wohld certainly be better than frittering, these funds away, as was now being done in many cases on practically useless work. Thousands, of applicants were waiting to take up these small holdings, and if the Government wished to retain the confidence of the people it would take steps to ensure that the small settlement scheme was pushed on without allowing anything to stand in the way In this New Zealand would have the assistance of the British Parliament, as the Empire .Settlement Act was designed to settle British people on the lands of the Empire. TOWN AND COUNTRY It was regrettable that there had been wide divergence of views regarding the tariff question in New Zealand, which had, developed into practically a conflict Ut4tcen town and country interests, or what was erroneously supposed to he such interests. As a matter of fact, the interests of town and country were identical. As a food-producing and goldproducing country, New Zealand had an “• assured future, although its prosperity and wealth-producing capacity was, of course, largely dependent on the ratio of prices of commodities, which could only be settled after the world problems of reparations and war debts, and the stabilisation of currency and rates of exchange had been settled. The present extereme difficulty in obtaining capital for industrial development was evidence of a lack of confidence in the future, which was becoming morbid, and tended to bring about disaster. Fortunately, with a slightly rising tendency in the prices lor our primary products, and the marked trade revival in Britain, a more hopeful feeling was developing which might be the precursor of a return of confidence, which, in its turn, would mean a reestablishing of normal business credit.