The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE TIMES.” THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1939. IMPORT CONTROL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20102, 23 November 1939, Page 4

The Gisborne Herald. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE TIMES.” THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1939. IMPORT CONTROL

The fact that the Minister of Finance continues to broadcast explanaj tions of the position in regard to import trade is the best possible evidence of the seriousness of the situation and of the confusion that exists. Were business proceeding on normal lines it would not be necessary for Mr. Nash to go “on the air’’ night after night; and if only Mr. Nash would forget some of his abstract I theories and move amongst the people I who are really affected he would prob- | ably realise just how futile all his cx-

; planations arc and keep off the air. When it seemed as if the complex imj port control regulations were aft'ect- | ing only a handful of business men | Mr. Nash could afford to be super- | cilious, but now that the policy Is re--1 fleeting itself in reductions of staffs, i with depleted stocks and empty ! shelves carrying their own warning i to thousands of other workers, the ! Minister has had to sit up and take ; notice. The employees themselves | now realise that the policy of import | control is likely to have a snowball ! effect, gathering momentum as it proj coeds, and they know full well, as was ! pointed out in one letter to the Minister, that it is the workers who are the first to suffer from such adverse influences and that the employers personally are affected last of all. Mr. Nash’s latest attempt to explain the situation is that in the last four years imports have constituted a record. That statement is correct, but it should be accompanied by the further explanation that exports, also, have broken all previous records, so that the community has been in a better position to purchase from overseas. Mr. Nash complains that the increased demand brought about, by the greater prosperity in the country has been heavier than can be met out of the available sterling funds. To some extent that is true, but an im-

portant point is that the drain on sterling funds has been due largely to factors other than normal imports, commodity and invisible. To the extent that there has been actual overimportation, Mr. Nasli must accept the | blame, firstly, because the Governj meat's cost-raising policy placed ! locally produced goods at a serious disadvantage, and. secondly, because 1 the Government was not content with | the prosperity created by higher i prices for exports but went further I and expanded purchasing power to ! the extent of many millions of pounds. | Since there was no equivalent producj tion of goods in the Dominion this i artificial purchasing power could only find an outlet in the demand for overseas goods, of which Mr. Nash now complains and which has contributed to the crisis now facing the Dominion. Mr. Nash quoted a list of items to show that imports had been diverted j rather than reduced. Again he was | correct, but it was a simple matter to select a few items out of the list of

nearly 200 which appears in the official records. He mentioned, for instance, increased imports of hoop iron and galvanised and plate iron. He could just as easily have pointed out that imports of the main iron and steel groups, which are so vital 1o building, had been cut in half this year as compared with last, and that

nails and fencing wire had been drastically reduced. He attempts to console the public with an increase of £50,000 worth of hatmakers’ materials, but forgets to mention that imports of agricultural implements and machinery were cut down by more than £IOO,OOO. He spoke of an extra £14,000 worth of cocoa and chocolate, but ignored the drop of £52,000 in the value of bananas and the cut of 75 per cent in onion imports, which his own department controls. These, apparently, are Mr. Nash’s ideas of how imports should be selected—and he. of

course, has appointed himself sole selector—but if the public were permitted to make its own choice it would probably display a finer sense of discrimination as to what was

necessary. For some, perhaps, there will be consolation in the knowledge that Mr. Nash did permit the importation of an extra £OO,OOO worth of brandy, rum, gin, and whisky.

While admitting that, few figures were yet available for the year ended March 01, Mr. Nash claimed an increase in the output of manufacturing industries. He mentioned as one example the increased output of biscuits and confectionary, which are no doubt desirable items, but he neglected to mention that there was less employment in the same industry; and had he looked at the preceding page of the same authority he would have seen that the output of ham, bacon, and lard showed a substantial de-

crease. In the previous issue of the Abstract of Statistics he would have learned that the grain-milling industry, in the same period, milled .745,000 bushels less wheat and 40,000 bushels less oats, the Government Statistician commenting that “the most noteworthy feature ... is the decrease in the production of Hour during 1038-39 as compared with 1937-38.'' A few pages further on the Minister could have seen that there were 340 fewer people employed in the woollen-milling industry and that every item of production showed a substantial decline. On next page are the returns for

the boot and shoe industry, which also engaged fewer employees, and although it showed a slight increase in production in some lines still produced less than in 1930-37. Again, perhaps, Mr. Nasli can console himself with i the knowledge that the one industry showing real progress was that of brewing and malting, but to derive consolation from these or any other figures at present available would require a distorted sense of values.