"DELIBERATE POLICY"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 137, 7 December 1938, Page 15

"DELIBERATE POLICY"

Under the heading "Insulation Begins," the "Auckland Star" says that the kind of action the Government has taken to meet the emergency is probably the least disruptive of commerce that it could have chosen. It must be remembered that this emergency was not caused by external uncontrollable factors, but was inherent in the Government's policy. It could have been and was foreseen. Nevertheless, the policy was deliberate, and it is incumbent on the people who found the first effects of the policy agreeable to regard sympathetically the actions which have been necessitated by the further working out of the same policy.

The "Star" says that the suspension of the Reserve Bank's obligation to supply sterling and the imposition of control are measures designed apparently with the exclusive purpose of conserving sterling funds. For the import control there is a double motive. There is no indication that the import control will be temporary. On the contrary, New Zealand manufacturers are presented with a great opportunity to win a new position in New Zealand's economy and if they win it they will not yield it. They need the full cooperation of the workers, and it is doubtful even if that is granted whether they can succeed without some regulation of the 40-hour week, etc. i

Finally the "Star" refers to the internal loan proposal and the high level of advances by the Reserve Bank to the State, and says it is essential that the Government should revise its Public Works programme and reduce the rate of expenditure.