The Wanganui Chronicle TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1933. THE CONFERENCE AGENDA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 107, 9 May 1933, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1933. THE CONFERENCE AGENDA

r J’HE agenda prepared for the forthcoming Economic Conference sets forth the business of the Conference under six heads. These headings are:—(l) Monetary and credit policy. (2) Prices. (3) Resumption of the Movement of Capital. (4) Restrictions of International Trade. (5) Tariff and Treaty Policy. (6) Organisation of Production and Trade. The business included under each of the above headings is of vital interest to New Zealand. The Dominion is tied to sterling, its natural level is approximately ten per cent, below sterling, but an unnatural level of 25 per cent, below is in existence through the interplay of political ambitions. How this false position shall be remedied is difficult to foresee, but it is certainly necessary to cushion the shock of readjustment as much as posible. Prices in New Zealand are precarious even at their present low level. Costs now are above prices, and while it is easy to say that wages must come down, it must be recognised that, there are limits below which it is unwise as well as unjust to force wages. But the restoration of equilibrium is beyond any one country’s power to restore, and this is singularly true of New Zealand. In capital movements New Zealand is again vitally interested, either for the purpose of getting lower interest rates or for securing fresh supplies of capital to carry forward the development of the country. Besides, New Zealand’s short-term debt is increasing month by month, and this will have to be funded on long term because the floating debt has grown too large to deal with in present conditions. International trade is New Zealand’s breath of life. It is essential that the Dominion’s products shall find further markets, and that the restrictions on the movements of the numerically few products shall be reduced. This will involve a reconsideration of the tariff policy of the Dominion, and it will be necessary for some radical changes to be decided on. Under the final heading it must be remembered that New Zealand is a sufferer, it being the mark of American subsidised shipping and Australian export policy in the butter market. The Patterson Plan for the encouragement of butter exports in Australia is as pernicious as the subsidising of the Matson Line.

To give these matters careful consideration, and to be ready lo strike a bargain when the opportunity presents itself with any of the 66 countries which will be represented at the Conference, will be the work of the Dominion’s delegation.