SOUND MONEY AND MR. SEMPLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 258, 1 November 1939, Page 6

SOUND MONEY AND MR. SEMPLE

■ lhe annual value (of production) goes down, the income of the people automatically goes down with it. [ .want someone to knock holes in that statement. Money registers wealth.” asserted Mr. Semple, when addressing the Farmers’ I nion of the Buller district, when he condemned monetary manipulation leading to inflation. Mr. Semple lias stated a self-evident fact, and that is that a man cannot eat a loaf until that loaf is made and baked and delivered to his table. It doesn’t matter how many pound notes there are in existence, whether many or few, unless there, is a corresponding relationship between the amount of goods and lhe amount of money steadily maintained, then prices change, but not the quantity of the goods. Production is talked of as an easy process, but a little thought will recall that it takes three years to produce a glass of milk: tha, is. assuming that lhe pasturage is already in existence: it requires the outlay of a large amount, of capital before any profit is within sight, and it requires for such a purpose a measure of confidence in the relative permanence of economic and of monetary conditions. An increase in the amount of money without a corresponding increase in the amount of goods alters the relationship between money and goods. The same quantity of goods are usually to be purchased, but there is more money wherdwith to purchase those goods, hence inflation means higher prices but not higher living standards. A diversion of workers from useful occupations to non-pro-duetive employment, results in a drop in production, and that is what has been occurring in New Zealand. An inspection of the men employed at lhe municipal golf links at Gonville, will reveal not men working, but men not working most of their time. Ii should be made public, in the general interest, how much of the Government money has been spent on that job already. Here are men supposedly engaged in laborious work, but who find it necessary to wear their eoats, and even their overcoats, because they do not do enough work to keep themselves warm. This is pure waste of public money: it is leading to a reduction of wealth in New Zealand. Ou the other hand, the report of the Reserve Bank has pointed out that the Government has distributed to the dairy farmers a large sum in excess of the value of the product received, and that to the extent that there is not sufficient value in goods to balance this pay-out. inflation has already occurred. These two processes cannot continue without lhe dire effects, which are now Mr. Semple’s concern, becoming stark realities. The question is: What are Mr. Semple and his associates going to do in the face of this dual problem, the paying out of more than the product is worth, and the paying of men more than their labour is worth? To go on must lead to a lowering of the value of money in New Zealand : it will also lead to an increase in taxation, for higher taxation and very high interest rates are always the companions of an inflationary policy. Air. Semple is one of those politicians who is on the right road if he continues to think as he expressed himself in the Buller district.

The King's English. “This correspondence seems to be full of words like ‘contacted’ and ‘finalise,’ ’’ said the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, during the hearing of a civil case in the Supreme Court at Hamilton, when a number of business letters were produced. “It is a new language which might be called 'merchantese,' ” His Honour added. “Evidently ordinary English is not good enough. All I can say is that the Court is at least one place where we should have English pure and undefiled. We should regard it as our duty to maintain it so.”

Opening of Swimming Baths. With the improvement in the weather experienced lately there promises to be keen interest in swimming. The Durie Hill School baths will be officially opened on Saturday, and an invitation has been extended to Mr. W. J. Rogers,'Mayor of Wanganui, to officiate. The Wanganui East School baths will be opened on the following Saturday.