The Hokitika Guardian MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 1922. RECONSTRUCTION.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 January 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 1922. RECONSTRUCTION.

In the course of his l a te speech at Invercargill, where Sir Joseph Ward had a remarkably cordial public welcome, he went on to say turning to some of the problems that are confronting the Empire' that it would be a good thing if they realised the changes that had been brought about through the infamous aspirations of a few people in a country that wanted to dominate the world. And it was a great thing to remember and realise that the Empire had come out on top and intact. If he continued, the world was not going to learn the lesson given it and to try to prevent »» repetition

of the terrible tragedy then the war had not hern to end wait at all, but he was very certain that the world’s people did not intend to allow any monarch to bnild up armies and navies for conflict in the years to come. The course they were anxious to pursue was the limitation of ainiaments so as to make aggression more difficult. He had been through some of the devastated areas and to his mind nothing was more terrible than the sight of the men and women of these nations engaged in restoring what were once happy towns and cities to something like their old form Thousands would .be 'wi siting /these battlefields and to them it would convey a great moral lesson. There was a need °for an educational propaganda with as its base peace and goodwill

among men. They had to look at their trouble trom the standpoint of the new conditions of the world, the speaker proeeded. It was criminal foi any one to take the stand that the same conditions to-day governed the wo r ld as governed it in 1914. The sooner this was realised, and the realisation 1 'acted -upon the .sooner would they emerge from the chaotic state that had followed the great and get into a strong financial position. ; He believed that only by co-operating I and sinking their differences could they march shoulder to shoulder to | put their great country on the high road to the prosperity it hod enjoyed in the previous thirty years. The | seat of the financial trouble was the ! currency. There was not one Oonj tinental nation to-day that could give ! the value of a British pound in it 8 | own currency. The leading men of i the Old Country, men who had made ! the name and faanp of the British | Empire, were being stpMQgbd by this ! in ’their efforts to imptoW her trade. While the trade of thb Motherland was had every other part of the Empire was going to suffer. If for that reason alone this part should do it 8 best to better conditions. To realise tho position they had only to think of a man in 'England with £150,000 worth of merchandise. Before the war, he would have said a big proportion of this to tho Continent, but now, by sending it the twenty-two miles across the channel he would not find a country that would be able to give him the equivalent in value. It was just the same as if the New Zealand pound wa 8 worth I.Bs in Invercargill and 5s in Christchurch; how many of them would care to trade with Christchurch ? So the British asked that tho Germans and the Russians should pay in gold and these nations could not pay in gold). That was the kernel iof the trouble the statesmen of the 'Empire had to face. He was positive that this trouble could be overcome only by tho 1 the British Government and those of the United States, France, G-.im.ny 1 and (whether they liked it or not) Russia, establishing a central house where' there could be got the equivalent of j the pound in all currencies. They could take it from him that this would, have to be done beforg they would get hack to tho old conditions of trade. The Old Country was writhing in trouble ; there were 2,300,000 people out of employment and men whose fami- > lies had been on the land for gene. 1 rations were coming inH the towns i to sell their properties because they I could not bear the load of taxation j that the new world had placed on them and many manufacturers were closing down the(ir businesses. The export trade had fallen off tremendously and only the other day, they j fiad been given figures that showed that the figures for the United States were, in proportion to the population in just as bad a way. The leaders of New Zealand, even though the interests of this country were infinitesimal compared with those of the; logger dominions, should impress on the people of the Motherland that the basic ft'nnV.lr* must, removed.