AUSTRALIAN FINANCE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 281, 22 August 1921, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN FINANCE

COUNTRY’S ATTRACTIONS FOR INVESTORS AND EMIGRANTS ADDRESS BY MR. HUGHES By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright (Rec. August 21, 5.5 p.m.) London, August 19. Mr. Hughes addressed about a hundred bankers and other prominent financiers at zlustralia House. In the course of an hour’s speech, he eulogised Australia as one of tho most attractive countries in the world for investment and emigration. He described Mildura as a veritable paradise without angels and flaming swords. A revolution was impossible in Australia, because wealth there was more evenly distributed than anywhere else, except in New Zealand. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. COMMENT BY “FINANCIAL TIMES.” (Rec. August 21, 5.5 p.m.) London, August 20. The “Financial Times” states that Mr.. Hughes’s invitation to bankers and financiers to meet him “to discuss the question of Australian finance” seemed to indicate that Mr. Hughes, knowing the strong opinions entertained in the City regarding particular aspects of Australian financial policy, had resolved to tackle and remove all unpleasant impressions. Any expectation of this kind was disappointed. No one could have guessed from the proceedings at . the meeting at Australia House that British investors had complained. To take only one instance, that of companies whose one desire was to sell land, and who have been subjected to penal taxation as though obstinately withholding land from settlement. M.’. Hughes’s address was an unconscious revelation, of the psychology of tho Australian statesmen regarding finance. After cataloguing Australia’s flocks and herds, boundless wheatfields, and vast mineral resources, nnd showing that for all tho borrowings there are tangible assets which are ever multiplying, he believes he has exhausted the question of Australian finance as it affects nast and perhaps prospective lenders in Britain—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. ECONOMIES IN LONDON DEFENCE STAFF TO BE REDUCED. (Rec. August 21, 5.5 p.m.) London, August 20. Mr. Hughes has proposed a reduction of the London defence staff at Australia House, by over forty.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. London, August 19. Mr. W. M. Hughes is concentrating the Australian naval staff in Australia House. This will save -C2OOO a year in rent, in addition to .£3OOO a year saved in personnel. —-Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.