WHEN TO PREPARE.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 93, 6 May 1937, Page 4

WHEN TO PREPARE.

" The boom, not, the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury. Just as it was advisable for local authorities to press on with eapital expenditure during the slump, so it * is now advisable that they should postpoue whatever new enterprises can reasonably be held back. I do not mean that they should ahandon their plang of improvement. On the contrary, they should have them fully matured, available for quick release at the right moment, But - the boom, not the slump, is the right time for procrastination. " Just as it was advisable (from our own point of viqw) to check imports and to take measures to improve the balance of trade during the slump, so it is now advisable to shift in the oppogite direction and to welcome imports even though they result in an adverse balance of trade. I should like to see a temporary rebate on tariffs wherever this could be done without throwing British resources out of employment. But, above all, it is desirable that we should view with equanimity and without anxiety the prospective worsening of our trade balance which is likely to result from higher prices for raw materials and from our armament expenditure and general trade activity. Now is the time to appoint a board of publio investment to prepare sound sehemes agaiust the time that I they ar* ntfded."^— Mr J. M. Keyne*.