WORK. AND SAVE

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160732, 19 August 1920, Page 7

WORK. AND SAVE

TO EESTOEE VALUE OE MONEY. Mr Hopkins, in the House of Commons, called attention to the foreign exchange value of sterling, and moved that in the opinion of the House, the Government should at the earliest possible moment take all such steps as were within their power to restore the international exchange value of the pound sterling. We are, he said, paying (from 20 to 30 per cent, more for goods in foreign markets than we should pay if our exchanges 'were at or near par. No one remedy is opem to us, but there are various measures the Government could adopt to balance the exchange between us and foreign Powers. He favoured the imposition of a tax in order to restrict luxury imports and the importation of unnecessary manufactures into the country. Mr Sugden formally seconded. Mr Baldwin, replying for the Treasury, said that the financial malady from which we were now suffering was not peculiar to this country; it applied to the whole .world. There was no royal road to financial stability. The ruin of the last five years could only be made good in time, with toil and with tears. Two things were necessary; we must work and we must save, and put our savings into productive industry for the manufacture of such goods as were really needed, rather than for goods that merely ministered to luxury and wantonness. The amendment moved by Mr Hopkins was negatived without a division.