THE LANG PLAN.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 365, 5 March 1932, Page 9

THE LANG PLAN.

To the Editor. Dear Sir,—After wasting a good deal of ink in beating about the bush, your correspondent “ F.K.” comes to earth in his defence of Mr Lang and asks what happened to the money furnished to the Premier of New South Wales from Federal loans for the purpose of paying overseas bondholders. Why ask me? Take Mr Lang's answer —he has had it tripping from his tongue at every opportunity, with tears almost at the same time streaming from his eyes. The money, says Mr Lang, has gone to pay sustenance to the widows, the orphans and the poor. That is only partly true—a good deal has gone in various other ways—but Mr Lang’s answer never varies. Anyway, he must take much of the responsibility, for it is the tragic failure of the Lang Plan that has put thousands of New South Wales people on the dole and made them poor. Fewer workers receiving wages has been the penalty for the Lang policy of spurious finance, which has included the retention of a basic wage which current conditions have proved incapable of providing. Further, the same policy has had the effect of holding up the cost of living, which has fallen swiftly in the more soundly directed States. The New Soutn Wales’ cost of living is 10 per cent above that of Victoria.

The Lang Plan has failed utterly, and it is primarily through lack of confidence in its leader that industry i? not flourishing in New South Wales, and thousands of distressed and indigent persons are walking the streets. No one denies that they should get sustenance —what is urged is that had Mr Lang paid his debts and not repudiated, the need for help would have been very much less. Repudiation, in other words, is the sister of misery, and Mr Lang is the father of both.—l am, etc., WATTLE GROVE.