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Hokitika Guardian, 10 August 1920, Page 2

It is now some years, remarks tie Lyttelton Times, sftitec the theory was first launched that the royal road to the regeneration of a war-ravaged world was to “produce more and spend less.” It was not entirely an unsound theory. In some respects it was an obvious and self-evident truism, but like the majority of tabloid recipes it was not intended to be taken without a leaven of common sense. Manifestly it could not bo universally applicable, for if evervbody spent less the world would require not greater but smaller production. qChos© who used this phrase had in

mind the fact that at the close of the war that portion of the world which was most intimately -concerned in the conllict was producing less and spending more than it had over done before. Prices were high, we w’ere told, because commodities were scarce, and as soon as the supply was again normal and the demand satisfied, prices would come down. That again, was self-evidently true. How true it was is proved by a reference to the actual condition of the world’s principal markets at the middle of the present year. As the result of that experience it would he as well if Mr Massey and other apostles of the doctrine of “produce more and spend less” would add a rider to the effect that one should also make sure one has a- customer before very largely expanding production, while those who rely 'on the steadying influence on prices of the law of supply and demand should supplement their dictum with a, proviso that care should b'e taken that supplies are not manipulated by interested parties.