SIGNS OF DECLINE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19503, 9 December 1937, Page 10

SIGNS OF DECLINE

FORECAST FOR 1938 A USTRALIAN SOUNDNESS BRISBANE, Nov. 25. Mr. Alan Clark, lecturer in statls tics at Cambridge University, in an address to the Constitutional Club to-day, said that the close of the present year would mark the peak of the present economic prosperity, and that there would be signs of decline next year. Mr. Clark said that the existing internal economic structure of Australia appeared eminently sound. Probable sources of disturbance were Britain and America. The forces of world depression, he said, could be atltacked by two methods—additional public works ex. penditure toy Governments, and a policy of easy money on the part of the banks. The economic decline in 1938 might not necessarily be longlived or severe. From his observations in Australia he had come to a conclusion which was hopeful rather than despairing. In some circles, he added, it was claimed that certain Australian Governments had been too liberal in their public works expenditure in recent years, but the Loan Council and the Commonwealth Bank had done everything possible to keep that expenditure to a minimum in the prosperous years. He hoped those two bodies and the Governments intended to Increase that expenditure when there were signs of an economic decline.