TOPICS OF. THE DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18930, 27 April 1933, Page 6

TOPICS OF. THE DAY.

Judicious Spending a Duty. “ Wc hear on all hands from those who are the custodians of thrift that judicious spending has become as inoperative a patriotic duty to-day as was careful saving eighteen months or two years ago,” says” the Aberdeen Press and Journal on a topic of much interest just now. < “If every person earning money to-day in sufficient'quantities to have a surplus over the sum necessary ( to cover his or her normal needs were to spend a. shilling extra per week during 1933, no less than £20,000,000 would be added to the nation’s income. And an average of a shilling a week for a year is a very small sum to fix for this additional expenditure.

“ Half-a-crown a week only means £0 10s a year, and many hundreds of thousands of persons, if they realised the need'Unwise spending, could dispose of ss, 10s, 20s, or more beyond their usual every week. It is probably safe to say that an average of 10s extra expenditure per week could be attained, and the aggregate of such sums, applied in accordance with the principle of buying British, would give work for a year to about one million of the unemployed.

“ It would not stop at that, for the movement, once it got going, would he a snowball affair. There arc ample indications that the fillip which a little extra public spending would give could vastly improve the situation.”

Has Economy Been Overdone? Tiie Hon. Rupert E. Beckett, chairman of the Westminster Bank, Limited, in his address to the shareholders, referring to the economic depression and the demand for economy, said, inter alia: “ Ever since the introduction of the Emergency Budget of 1931, the Government has consistently exhorted not only all its own departments hut every public authority throughout the land to practise the sternest economy.

“At a time when our financial stability was gravely (brentened, tills was only one of the grim necessities which were cheerfully faced bv our citizens. Public authorities, municipalities, etc., have all been loyal to the Government’s appeal and have adjured all new expenditure save that which was deemed essential for (lie proper maintenance of public services.

Lately, however, the wisdom of rigid adherence to tlie policy of economy, in all its Spartan severity, and in each and every circumstance, lias been questioned by more than one eminent authority. There is clearly a danger lest a policy designed to meet an emergency may he allowed to become a lired principle, and may do incalculable harm.

“Has the time perhaps come when, in suitable cases, some relaxation of economy may be more beneficial in the long run than its strict maintenance!”