SAVING FOR RAINY DAY.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 127, 15 June 1937, Page 4

SAVING FOR RAINY DAY.

Probably of more immediatc concern to us in New Zealand than the gold question is that portion of the message above quoted which gives warning that the present prosperity in the Old Country must not ' bo regarded as of altogether assured long endurance. Men of mark in the field of economics are cited as giving expression to grave doubts as to whether it will survive the big rearmament expenditure upon which the British Government has now enteTed. This is evidently regarded as anything but a reliable help to the recovery that was previously in steady progress. Rather is it looked upon as a menace to a sound and lasting economic revival. It is in itself manifestly a merely passing phase, but none the less aalculated to create a mistaken feeling that all is now bound to go well for the future. Even the least versed among us in matters of the kind cannot but recoguise that when this exceptional and heavy expenditure ceases there must necessarily be some adverse reaction to meet which some preparation should now be undertaken. One safeguard that is suggested is that for the present the spending of large sums of money on public works should be curtailed, reserving that for the slack time that is sure to follow. That is an obvious lesson that has been impTessed upon most countries as the result of the -world-wide depression. Eyes everywhere have been opened to this, that when evil times in other respects come the State should be in a position to provide remnnerative work for those 3 thrown out of employment. It would seem, however, to be a lesson that has not caught hold with our own Government^ which is making a wild rush of spending upon public works, of which some at least are far from being of an urgent character and might well be postponed as a fall-baek in times of need. Should anything in the nature of a slump occur in Great Britain it must inevitably react upon us here.