IMPORT RESTRICTIONS

Southland Times, Issue 23991, 5 December 1939, Page 3

IMPORT RESTRICTIONS

To The Editor Sir—W. N. Johnson’s letter is insulting and offensive. I listened to Mr Nordmeyer’s address last Monday night and favour the opinion that he had a thorough grasp of the situation. That opinion was shared by all those who heard him. Mr Johnson’s cheap epistle will do nothing to detract from the excellence of the impressions made by the speaker on his Invercargill audience. —Yours, etc., LISTENER. December 2, 1939. To The Editor Sir, —Logical facts are convincing. Empty talk is cheap and of small value, like anonymous correspondence. “Fair Play” says, “There was no need for slump conditions in New Zealand during what was known as the depression period.” I challenge him to expand that statement by enlightening mankind how slump conditions could have been avoided when the national income was reduced to less than half. He says there is no inflation in New Zealand. How does he explain away the rapidly increasing note issue with its inevitable forcing up of internal prices or, in other words, its decreasing of purchasing power? How does he account for the even more drastic im-

port restrictions unless they are necessitated by inflation, namely, an excess of internal notes accompanied by inability to import? He denies the decline in production except last year. What about the two previous years? He accuses me of being “an innocent abroad,” yet makes one of the silliest statements I have ever seen when he says that of the money spent on public works only the cost of machinery purchased abroad reduces our sterling funds. Such a statement displays 'a gross ignorance of even the rudiments of economics. Actually this unproductive expenditure plays the biggest part in keeping down sterling funds and necessitates import restrictions. Hence the desperate but belated efforts of the Government to get men back on the land and into industry, but because of excessive taxation and bureaucracy it has destroyed the confidence and initiative of our major producers of sterling. He refers to an alleged attempt to wreck the Government by the removal of large sums overseas, but common sense should tell him that what did happen was that trading conditions were made so impossible that wise investors looked for something safer and more remunerative. I admire such people for their foresight and sagacity when today we find companies paying 12/- in the £ taxation, and hampered and harassed in every possible way. “Fair Play” calls this removal of money a despicable manoeuvre, but that exactly describes those actions of the Government which made this wise removal advisable.

An Invercargill merchant told me recently that he imported goods from Australia and paid the New Zealand Government for them before delivery, but as the Government will retain the moneys paid for up to 12 months before handing them over to their owner in Australia, the buyer has to pay 51 per cent, interest. Yet your correspondent who approves of this kind of thing signs himself “Fair Play.” He is wise to remain anonymous, for such hypocrisy would be hard to beat. Finally, let me say this. Before the advent of Labour New Zealand proved itself one of the most progressive and efficient countries in the world. Occasional slumps brought everyone setbacks and hardships, and irrespective of what monetary system we may have in the future, slumps will recur with greater or less severity, as the human element will be always present. A Labour Government in New Zealand has not been without value as it hps proved to all intelligent people, as it was also proved in Britain and New South Wales, that there is no short cut .to prosperity and that State control and interference fails lamentably whereas private enterprise and initiative, unfettered by Government restrictions and dictatorship, succeed in building a free nation which provides a reasonably high standard of living for all and in which the most efficient receive the greatest rewards. The individual should be supreme, not the State. Let us put a stop to socialism and stop aping Russia and Germany before it is too late.—Yours, etc., lAN WILLS. December 4, 1939. To The Editor Sir,—l should like to endorse the statement of your correspondent, “Square Deal,” that as a class business men are ignorant, narrow-minded and self-opinionated and quite incapable of taking a broad-minded and long view of the nation’s affairs outside their own little spheres. Their opinion in most subjects is not worth any consideration. To substantiate this contention I shall submit a few statements that business men have made to me. Here they are:

The Labour Government will not be able to reduce the exchange and take off the sales tax as and when promised. It will not be able to stop the cost of living from going up. The wages offered qn public works and such like jobs will attract the workers off the land. Lavish expenditure will drain the London funds and mean the imposition of import control. Import control will mean that many employees will lose their chosen jobs. Pre-election promises to reduce taxation will not be carried out. It will be tough on New Zealand if war breaks out and our funds are at a low ebb. The country will be overrun with union secretaries. There will be strikes galore. The dairy farmers will be quite content while they are doing the milking, but if they discover they are being milked, their roars will be terrifying. To prove how stupid lots of business men are, they will plan to save and scrimp themselves for years just to own a business only to discover that their worries are only starting. There are huge taxes to pay, wages to find, creditors to satisfy and at the end of each week they will find they have not as much money to spend as the man without worries on a union wage. One business man was so impertinent that he asked me if I believed Mr Savage when he stated that we have nothing to fear. The cheek of him to think that I, a' worker, did not know that one. Why, years ago a dentist lulled me along by saying, “I won’t hurt you, you have nothing to fear,” and when he got me and himself into position he proceeded to pull my head off.—Yours, EXPERIENCE DOESN’T COUNT. December 4, 1939.