STABILISING THE NATIONAL ECONOMY.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21325, 20 April 1939, Page 6

STABILISING THE NATIONAL ECONOMY.

Two points involving economic fundamentals stand out above the financial statistics presented for consideration by the Minister of Finance and Marketing in his address at the opening of the Dominion Dairy Conference yesterday. Stressing the necessity for stabilisaton in New Zealand’s national economy, Mr Nash suggested that dairy farmers should agree to accept the present guaranteed price for the 1939-40 season. This acceptance the Minister suggested, would make a substantial contribution to the measure of stabilisation the Government desired. The Minister on his part, moreover, is alive to the futility of looking for the stabilisation of the national economy merely because the dairy producers of the Dominion ignore the rising cost of production and accept the guaranteed price now being paid as the basis of the 1939-40 price level. Something more than that is needed:

The Minister of Finance and Marketing stressed the desirability of getting men, for instance those employed by public bodies, and who might be doing what might be called nonproductive work, whether it be on farm or in factory, and said he would be glad to co-operate with other Ministers in endeavouring to bring that about.

Every wide-awake citizen of New Zealand will give the strongest endorsement to Mr Nash’s plea for co-operation in the efforts being made to stabilise New Zealand’s economy. It is plain, however, that the Minister is asking the dairy producers of New Zealand to make sacrifices in the national interest. Last year, it will be remembered, the guaranteed price was fixed by the Minister in spite of recommendations that the level should be fractionally higher. The dairy industry will be compelled, of course, to take into account the cost of production. Has the upward spiral, so feared by the Minister, slackened in its momentum, since last year? That is the factor that will have to be taken into account by the representatives of the dairy industry before a decision can be made. The declaraion of the Minister that New Zealand cannot go on indefinitely bearing the burden of thousands of men engaged in uneconomic employment is most timely. The standard of’living of the people is involved in this difficult problem. Hence the plain speaking by the Minister of Finance and Marketing who addressed the dairy producers yesterday, following within a few days the warning addressed by the Minister of Labour to the workers of New Zealand, that until the national economy is brought near true equilibrium, the efforts of all sections of the community should be applied to the stabilisation of the Dominion’s position before any further upward movement is attempted.