WORLD ECONOMICS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18627, 24 July 1930, Page 6

WORLD ECONOMICS

ADDRESS BY LORD BLEDISLOE. By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON. July 23. The Governor-General (Lord Bledisloe) was the chief guest of the New Zealand Club at luncheon to-day, and gave a short address on world economics as it affects this Dominion. His Excellency said he was far from expecting entire agreement with the views which had been formed during his short sojourn in this country. The state of industry was governed by world-wide factors, over which they had little control, and not purely or even mainly by domestic activities and requirements. New Zealand especially was affected by these considerations, for she was predominately a pastoral country with a relatively small population for her geographical area, and her economic welfare depended, and must for at least another thirty years mainly depend. upon supplying her primary products—wool. meat, butter, cheese, fruit, and honey—to other nations. Upon their purchasing power, and upon her capacity to produce at a reasonable margin of profit commodities of this description, and of comparable quality with those flowing from other pastoral areas of the world, depended in the near future not merely her prosperity, but her very existence. Secondary industries must gradually develop as population increased. Their value as additional producers of wealth, and to some extent consumers of primary produce, was considerable, and if these industries were ancillary or closely allied to local primary industries their national utility and their stability would be enhanced, but it must always be borne in mind that the world’s great centres of consumption for industrial output were far from these shores, and that their existence, unless they were offshoots of some great established manufacturing corporation, might prove to be precarious in competition with mass production (accomplished by relatively low overhead costs) in other countries. While trade was thriving, such undertakings might provide much employment at good remuneration; but when inevitable waves of depression occurred they enormously accentuated unemployment, and consequently the task of modern Governments, local bodies, and the depletion of their financial resources in seeking its alleviation, become immeasurably greater. If, moreover, the people of any country, especially one with a sparse population, failed to patronise fully its secondary products, their manufacture became increasingly precarious. So far as these commodities were not available, patronage should be given preferentially by a country of primary producers to the manufactures of their best overseas customers, in order that sound international finance and satisfactory exchange rates might be maintained; financial stringency with increased taxation be avoided; and due facilities provided at reasonable freight rates by ocean ships carrying in both directions merchandise other than ballast.

His Excellency added: “My own settled conviction, as a careful student of this world-wide industrial problem, is that those nations will ultimately gain victory in the present battle for trade, and ensure lasting prosperity and contentment for their peoples, which are ready and able on the one hand to supply their oversea customers, especially those in Great Britain, with commodities of uniformly high quality complying with the exact specification which they prescribe; and on the other, to abstain at least for the next decade from all avoidable domestic strife, emphasising (in a spirit of conciliation and the truest patriotism) points of contact rather than points of difference. I earnestly hope New Zealand may be reckoned among their number.”