BUDGET DEBATE ENDS.

Wairarapa Age, 3 October 1935, Page 5

BUDGET DEBATE ENDS.

LABOUR PLANS CRITICISED BY MR. COATES. 1 COALITION POLICY JUSTIFIED BY RESULTS. INDICATIONS OF IMPROVED BUSINESS. (By Telegraph—” The Age” Special.) WELLINGTON, October 2. sVith a slashing attack on Labour plan-s for guaranteed prices, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates (Minister of Finance) concluded the Budget Debate in the House of Representatives to-day. He quoted many statements by Labour candidates and members in an attempt to elucidate the real nature of the proposals, which, he said, would have involved the payment of 136 millions during the last six season-s if the average prices of the seasons 1926-119 , 29 inclusive had been paid under a guarantee system. To have given the same results by increasing the exchange would have sent it to 200, while adoption of the expedient of currency inflation would have caused loss of confidence, increased internal prices and an actual loss of purchasing power by wage earners. The Government had adopted the course of increasing exchange to 125 and reducing costs. The results were now evident in generally improved business in all directions. Mr. Coates p«id a high tribute to the people of New Zealand who had stood up to a painful process of heavy taxation and other measures for bridging the gap between costs and prices.