DOMINION’S PROBLEMS.

Wairarapa Age, 14 March 1934, Page 5

DOMINION’S PROBLEMS.

ADDRESS BY OPPOSITION LEADER. DISTRIBUTION OF NATIONAL ' INCOME. DUNEDIN, March 13. Mr. M. J. Savage, Leader of the Opposition, addressed a large audience in the Town Hall to-night. Mr. W. J. Morland, chairman of the Labour Representation Committee presided. Mr. Savage, who was accorded a very enthusiastic reception said the main problem facing the Dominion to-day was one of the distribution of the national income. It was useless to go on producing more unless the increase in production were made available to the people. Improvements in machinery and scientific processes were responsible for vast increases in production without a corresponding increase in the employment of manual labour and unless the benefits of machinery and science were equitably distributed among the rank and file of the people who were responsible for the production recurring periods of depression were inevitable. The way out of the present difficulty was complete public control of the monetary system, which should be organised as a national service, having for its object the supply of sufficient credit and currency to enable the people to exchange services with each other. That was not the object of the present banking system, although the existing banking machinery might easily be made to serve the purpose. The opponents of Labour frequently asked where the money wae to come from to guarantee prices for goods and services and they conveniently overlooked the fact that since 1922, when the first wage and salary reductions were made a wholesale destruction of the medium of exchange was carried out by Acts of Parliament. Farmers and others were called upon from time to time to provide goods for export in order to meet Dominion commitments overseas and they were entitled to expect guaranteed prices sufficient to enable them to enjoy a standard of living in keeping with the productivity of New Zealand industries. Such guaranteed prices could be maintained only by the payment of wages and salaries in equitable relationship with the aggregate prices to be paid. Without a guaranteed purchasing power in the form of wages ana salaries guaranteed prices for products could not be sustained. Under present conditions the products were at the mercy of the speculators and the stability of trade and industry was impossible.

At the conclusion of his address Mr. Savage was accorded an unanimous vote of thanks and confidence amidst applause.—(P.A.)