MEMBER'S SPEECH

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 19, 24 October 1944, Page 4

MEMBER'S SPEECH

The. saving effected by buying imported door locks can be. only negligible on a £1500 house but if Mr Sullivan were to explain what he. meant, when he said the Government had paid a £100 more per house than they need to have done, and if he wt 2 to . say where that £100 went then he would be contributing something of importance to public affairs. But that, is not all. In your issue of the 3rd inst is another report of a speech by Mr Sullivan in which he stated there is a "shortage of many commodities which could be manufactured locally if labour and materials, w.ere available. Now what does Mr Sullivan, really want? In one speech lie advocates the building of secondary industries in the. next he wants to destroy one. It is a wise man who. only speaks when he knows what he wants to say. Yours etc. } S. MAYOW,

Sir, —In your issue of the 17th is a report of part of a speech by Mr Sullivan in the House of Representatives. In that speech hj makes a statement which has appeared to be. absurd to many who read it. At its best it contains a very mistaken, idea of economics. He claims that we. should import door locks and fittings' because the cost of the imported article is less than half that of. the locally manufactured article. Apparently he foi;gets 5 or probably never knew that money spent in a country on articles manufactured in that country means widening prosperity and increasing employment for the people. The minute we spend money on imported articles we throw our economy out of gear especially if. that article costs less than the locally manufactured one. That is an elementary law of economics. It is widely acknowledged that a country must develop its secondary industries in order to establish a balanced yet here is Mr Sullivan advocating the destruction of an industry vital to the building programme of the country.. The problem of rehabilitation is. bound up with that aspect of. the question. One rather wonders if the ideas of Mir Sullivan are inspired by National Party ideology. For should that be so ? then we can expect a return to depression conditions should that Party ever attain the Treasury Benches.