WARNING TO DOMINION

Taranaki Daily News, 29 August 1930, Page 8

WARNING TO DOMINION

ECONOMY URGENTLY NEEDED GOVERNMENT SHOULD GIVE LEAD. LESSON’S FROM AUSTRALIANS. • Auckland, Last Night. (By Wire.—Special to News), A warning that New Zealand may find itself in the same financial morass as Australia in ten years’ time if drastic i trenchment in Government ae«’ tivities was not immediately effected was uttered at the Auckland Chamber of Commerce luncheon by Mr. W. Ap-. pieton, a well-known New Zealand publicity and financial expert, who has jus; returned from a visit to Australia. "Business conditions are such that less trade must be expected in the future, md it is just as well to put oin house in order and not have the bailiff sent out to us as Australia has had,” he said.

“I am sorry to see that the New Zealand Government is relying more on increasing taxation to balance its Bud* got than on cutting down expenditure,’* said Air. Appleton. "We are starting at the wrong cud. I am afraid that within the next few months New Zealand will have to follow Australia’s example and go in for heavy retrenchment in Civil Service and Government activ« itics. It is very unpalatable, I know, to introduce cuts in the Civil Service and reduce wages, but with conditions as they are, in common with Austra-. lia we have to get down to brass tacks, and it is the Government that should give a lead to the people.” Per capita production would have to bo increased and costs reduced to meet the situation, continued Mr. Appleton, Business men of the Dominion would bo to blame if they did not set about rectifying the position immediately. Air. Appleton referred to the “foolish policy of paying standard rates of wages for unemployment relief work.” So long as the Government continued that policy, he said, men would be leaving farms and industries to "snap up a soft job.” One of the best things that was going to happen to Australia as the result of the imposition of the sales tax and other fiscal measures was the realisation by the man in the street that he had to pay for extravagance. New Zealand should take the warning.