The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND MONDAY. SEPTEMBER 15, 1930. NOTHING WRONG WITH STATE FINANCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1077, 15 September 1930, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET AUCKLAND MONDAY. SEPTEMBER 15, 1930. NOTHING WRONG WITH STATE FINANCE

LURKING and open fear about the outcome of Sir Otto Niemeyer’s advisory visit to New Zealand may now be dispelled. There is nothing wrong with national finance. Not only has the lion. E. A. Ransom, Acting-Prime Minister, said so, but lie has fortified liis statement with an assurance that the representative of the Bank of England and his economist colleague, Professor T. E. Gregory, both “regard the matter in the same light.” Indeed, the wonders of Whakarewarewa and the Waitoino Caves appear to have been more to the distinguished financier than the blunders of politicians. In Australia lie had no opportunity for entertainment at all, but was compelled to devote most of his time to financial exigencies that represented a painful experience to everybody concerned. Here, according to Mr. Ransom, everything is as right as right can be. These overseas experts’ views should make an end to much of the foolish panic that Ims put too many business men oft' the equilibrium of optimism. “The finances of New Zealand are on a perfectly sound fooling.” It may he retorted by pessimists that the evidence in support of the definite statement by the Dominion’s leading administrator at the moment is vague and lacking in convincing proof. The country must take Mr. Ransom’s word for it. There has been no thorough investigation of the State’s finances by Sir Otto Niemeyer and his expert assistants. Conversations on the subject with the Acting-Prime Minister apparently sufficed to encourage them to regard the financial position in the same light as the Administration lias viewed it. Vision differs, of course, as between experts and laymen, but the general taxpayer, remembering the “Black” Budget and the blacker Railways Statement, will be inclined to fancy that it must have required a long conversation to convince Sir Otto Niemeyer that all is well with New Zealand’s finances. It is to he regretted that the visiting banker's conversational opinions have been retailed as second-hand impressions. The whole Dominion would have responded briskly and with revived optimism to a definite and detailed statement by an impartial witness. Still, it is all to the good to have a Ministerial assurance that the country’s finauees are on a perfectly sound footing, also that “its credit has never stood higher in the British Empire or the Old Country than it stands today.” But was it really necessary for Mr. Ransom to add that “they realise that this country will at all times recognise its full liabilities and obligations and meet them in the proper financial way”? There never has been any suspicion. far less talk, of repudiation or defaulting. The trouble throughout mainly has been attributable to political extravagance, inferior direction, and chronic improvidence. As already observed in this column, it is a pity that Sir Otlo Niemeyer’s opinion, even in conversation, had not been obtained before the Prime Minister painted his dark picture of finance twenty-four hours after his succession to the late Sir .Joseph Ward—a picture which stampeded leaders of industry and commerce into practising a policy of depression. There was no valid ground for the pessimism of the Hon. George Forbes, and even less foundation for his disruptive Budget proposals which imposed on the country a staggering load of 4120,000,000 in taxation. In all probability the responsible administrators will contend that it was precisely that imposition which put New Zealand’s finances upon a perfectly sound footing. Such a contention will not stand against economic facts and necessities. If the Government had adopted a policy to the contrary and reduced taxation, together with a substantial reduction in the State’s extravagant expenditure on overcrowded departments and unproductive railway extensions, there would have been no occasion to invite Sir Otto Niemeyer to New Zealand in order to assure Mr. Ransom in conversation that the Dominion’s finances are perfectly sound. The Government now has to deny its own pessimism and assert a glowing optimism. It may be noted, too, with appreciation, that tlxe banks are not in a bad plight. Some legislation undoubtedly is required for the removal of war-time expedients and anomalies, but evidently there is no cause for hurry. Mr. Ransom has announced that, on the question of banking currency and exchange, Sir Otto Niemeyer will defer the preparation of his report until his return to England. Such legislation as may be essential for the good of the banks will be devised next year. In the meantime it is satisfactory to know, in spite of unemployment, dull trade and difficult times, that New Zealand is not in need of a Niemeyerian operation, and that the great surgeon of finance is able to enjoy a holiday in New Zealand. THE AMERICA S CUP THROUGHOUT the British Empire the result of Sir Thomas Lipton’s fifth challenge for the historic America’s Cup will, he awaited with the liveliest interest, and, though there may, at this early stage, be a feeling of regret that Shamrock V. has not managed to place to her credit a victory in the first race of the series, the event is by no means over yet (four out of seven contests have to be won to decide the issue), and Sir Thomas may yet achieve his life’s ambition, and win the applause of his countrymen the world over, by restoring the cup to Britain after an absence of nearly 80 years. British people are not, however, the only ones to wish Sir Thomas Upton good fortune in his quest. Even in America there is a strong sentiment in favour of the challenger, a feeling that, if ever a sportsman deserved the reward of effort, Sir Thomas is that man, Yachting on the scale which international racing demands is probably the world’s most expensive sport. Sir Thomas Lipton has spent nearly half a million pounds in his quest of the America’s Cup, and the graceful American yachts which have defended it against successive challenges have been built by syndicates of millionaires. Yet the impulse of the enthusiasm which leads these rich men into the aquatic “sport of kings” is shared by every boy who sails a cockleshell on the Waitemata. Men who take to yachting do so for the sheer love of it, for the thrill of matching wits with wind and tide, and the exhilaration of joyous movement under billowing canvas. If there are rewards in yachting, they are away in the distance. The sport is the concern of the moment, and Sir Thomas Lipton himself is a living example of a man who has engaged in a game for the sport of it, and not for the prizes it offers. His challenge with the Shamrock V. is less a challenge on his own behalf than on behalf of the British people, a people reared in the tradition a greatness achieved under sail. It is perhaps an irony that America should have retained the cup for so long. But in the past, conditions governing challenges have been difficult. Added to that is the established prowess of American yachtsmen. Men of all the nations may sail the seas skilfully. At the helm of Enterprise is Mr. Harold Vanderbilt, one of the famous New York family, descendants of a Dutchman who settled there when the infant city was New Amsterdam. In a sense, therefore, this contest for the America’s Cup becomes a contest between descendants of two seafaring races that long matched their seamanship in the narrow seas, as the skippers of Shamrock V. and Enterprise are now matching seamanship in Long Island Sound.