EMPTY CASH BOXES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 4, 28 April 1939, Page 8

EMPTY CASH BOXES

NEW ZEALAND DESPERATE

MR F. W. DOIO(:E"S COMMENT!}

'"In New Zealand we ;m< re.lcfU'nint> the lesson that you never miss the water till the well runs clrv, : ' said Mr F. W. Doiclae, M.P., when commenting on the new import legislations in a statement in the Bay of Plenty Times. ''The cash boxes in London find in Wellington are empty,'' he added. "In desperation the Government turns towards its policy of insulation. We are to shut out imports, and become self-sufficient. With our secondary industries fully developed, we shall be immune from slumps and trade cycles. ( "Wa s there ever a more fatuous assumption? America, before the last great slump, had erected the highest tariff wal's against the ou'e. side world that the world had ever known. Not only were manufactured goods from other countries shut out, but foodstuffs as well. Did in. sulation save Amcica in a period of world depression? It did not. ''Come nearer home,continued Mr Diodgc. "Has Australia's experi. ence no lesson for us? F f r thirty years, prior to the gr-'at slump, Au-> trnlia sought to build up secondary industries behind h'gh ta r iff walls. But stability, at the end of thirtv years, still depended on wheat and wool. And when the came. Australians plight was on n par w'uli the rest of the world. Unemplov. ment in her g'eat overcrowded cities jumped from 10 per cent in 1929 to 30 per cent in 1931. "The chaos and confusion which the Government policy will causd within New Zealand is bad enough. But infinitely more important is the risk we run of imperilling our posi_ tion on the London market. We in New Zealand, while desirous of the expansion of our secondary industries upon sound lines know that the real source of our wealth lies in the primary industries. We are world's greatest exporters of dairy produce. We are the world's second largest exporters of wool. And the London market is. to all intents and purposes, our only maTket. Britain takes 9ft per cent of all we export. We in turn take only 50 per cent °» what we import from Britain. And now Mr Nash declares an almost comnlete embargo. Is that giving Britain a square deal? ''What would happen to us =f Britain retaliated, as France, albeit b<>" small trade, proposes to do? T f thn London market wei-f> closed to u~. cur moat, our butter and our wool would become just so much flotsam and jetsam. "To.dav i=*. nee'l fnv ys cr-i----«ncte in every city in New Zealand, -'n order that a nlfn'n shnr.M be driven home," concluded Mr "and that is a veal'sation. of the fact ■hot the land is the living fonnna.. tion of the economic structure of this Dominion. Now, and for rnanv years to come, every nrm. w^am and chPd : n New Zealand will deoend nnon the prosne'-ity of the nnnmr.' indn^tri^s. that Mr T-ash says or does can alter that fact." DRIVERS' MANUAL

A booklet entitled ''Many Happy will be i;iven to every mo tor Ist who gets a driving license in Victoria during the next 12 months. It is made up of humorous sketches stories and unobtrusive safety hints. For example: ''It isn't your fault if all the other road users ar: f'oniplcte.y daft, but it is your fault il' you' :uvn't pr» pared for them to be so. ; ' The booklet ends with tho-e '"lani. )ik last words," neatly bordered in black —"Traffic regulations my eye '