NEED FOR VISION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18256, 27 November 1933, Page 9

NEED FOR VISION

NEW ZEALAND’S POSITION ‘ ‘ CONTENT TO DRIFT ALONG” “Throughout the world to-day we become aware of happenings and pronouncements that are pregnant with meaning for us here in New Zealand, though many of them are hardly considered in relation to this country at all,” said Dr. R. Campbell Begg in an address to the Wellington branch of the Town Planning Institute of New Zealand. A train of events depending one oil the other has occurred and it; will be well that wo consider and visualise the obvious sequence before it. becomes too late.

“That large concern known as the world trade has dropped to a total volume of .34 per cent., or one-third of what, it was four years ago,” Dr. Begg continued. “Great Britain, through the depreciation of her currency, I ratio agreements and other factors has lately secured a larger share of that trade, but the total volume of it does not appear to have increased. If this is so someone else must be going short. “Burdened by the enormous weight of £10,000,000,000 excess capital represented by no assets (the interna] war debts) nature tries to write off the legitimate productive capital in ways that are extremely unpleasant for the individual members of the concern. The depreciation of the American dollar which would for America write down this dead capital in the books threatens to restrict that portion of the 34 per cent which Britain has now secured. BRITAIN AND QUOTAS “Faced by a glut of beef and butter Britain puts quotas on foreign supplies. Finding a restricted market for its beef we read of the Argentine developing its sheep flocks and introducing stud stock to improve its output of wool. Japan finding its industrial export market threatened seeks a way to reduce her dependence on the import one. She aims to raise huge flocks of sheep in Korea and Manelmko. The Soviet and South Africa are both going in the same direction. The future wool market oi New Zealand and Australia may be in jeopardy. “Britain herself urges Newfoundland to develop her natural resources more. The Royal Commission calls attention to the inadequate use made of her resources and such as forests and minerals and large tracts in the interior suitable for fur-raising. ‘The financial difficulties,’ it adds, ‘are due to reckless waste mu! extravagance and to tho absence of constructive'’ and efficient administration engendered by a. political system which for a. generation lias been abused and exploited for personal and party ends.’ There was a commission which sat in i New Zealand not so very long ago, one iof whose members wrote a separate report in a somewhat similar strain. NEW ZEALAND’S TASK “New Zealand has hardly touched her natural resources. New Zealand has been content to drift. Even now she is busy with expedients to prop up her temporary structure instead of planning a long range programme, which will, dedefimteiy place her on a secure footing!. The Legion movement .wins primarily directed to rouse the people to this task. We. want a nation of men of vision and not those who with straining eyes can with difficulty discern the. dim future 24 hours ahead. “The Legion lias definitely adopted tho principles of regional government and decentralisation, while most of those who have thought on the subject liavo considered it ccntripetally in trying! to rivet up and consolidate the fringe of local bodies, the Legion lias handled the question eentrifugally, considering that the first task is to take the powers and the. personnel from the central government and distribute it.”