AUSTRALIA’S PROBLEM

Hokitika Guardian, 17 September 1930, Page 2

AUSTRALIA’S PROBLEM

FROM BAD TO WORSE.

BANKER’S ADVICE CONDEMNED

SYDNEY, Sept. 5

“A policy of stagnation,” is how Mr \V. M. Hughes labels the policy of the British banker, Sir (Otto Niemeycr. And the outstanding result of the attempt so far made to “make 'both ends meet” has been disastrous, so disastrous that a panicky feeling pervades the community. Every step taken to reduce public expenditure and to get increaed revenue has accentuated unemployment and distress, and the end is not yet.

Unemployment is increasing at an alarming rate; thousands of men am. women are seeking work and finding none; thousands must be on the verge of starvation, and all the efforts of charitable organisations appear as futile as an attempt to stem the irresistible sea of depression that threatens to overwhelm the community. At tlii*r stage Mr Hughes lias come Well into the limelight and his remarks, however, they may he regarded, have certainly sot people wondering whether Australia may not be taking the wrong road in an attempt to -set her house in order. Mr Hughes condemns Sir Otto’s advice as a policy of stagnation and despair, a stampede to drive ns into the compound where the financial interests ho represents wants ns, a plot to make us concentrate on the cheapest possible mod notion of raw materials for British industry—so, that Britain will be able to compete in the markets of the world. “We are to he hewers of wood and drawers of water,” sai.d Mr Hirghc-s, in a. sardonic parody of the visiting financier’s report. “The diet we live on, the sun and the blue skies, and wide expanse of our country have 'bred in us a spirit of optimism which unfits us for the subservient role lie and his friends have decided wo must fvl. 1 •'‘He can. do nothing with the sun and the blue skies of Australia, but his. faith in the chastening effects of a low diet is strong ”

“DOUBLE-CROSSING” ALLEGED. What Sir Otto did not mention, declares Mr Hughes, is that Britain has many times lent money to nations which have defaulted. “She has lent freely to the dairy interests, of Soviet Russia, Latvia, Esthoiiia and Argentina, in order to depress the price of Australian and New Zealand butter oil British markets. .There is plenty of money for these, but for Australia, which spent millions helping Britain in the war, and which is her best customer, next to India, uoo one penny,”' OVER-PRODUCTION. “The present troubles of the world are due to over-production. The price of wool has already fallen 40 per cent. To produce more wool would he fatal to our great pastoral industry

“If we were to concentrate on the production of raw material, barely one-half of the present papulation would find employment, even if Living standards were reduced below those of Britain.” Mr Hughes claims there would be dangerous effects of a reduction in present living standards. Property va'ues would fall, spelling disaster to tlio most thrifty and deserving people in the community, and ruin would face such industries as dairying, dried fruits and sugar, which were able to sell their suplus abroad at world prices only because of a higher charge to the Australian consumer. WHAT WE WANT. “The ruin of the sugar industry would mean the depopulation of North Queensland by the white races and the beginning of the end of our White Australia policy. Reduction in the consuming power of one country reacts upon all, so that the new level of wages would eventually be as unstable as the old. Our only hope lies in increased consumption in Australia.. Manufacturing industries alone can effect that.

“What we need is not cheaper labour, but cheaper land, cheaper money for industry, more efficient methods, and an over-increasing home market. Industry, now half paralysed with fear, must pluck up courage. Employment can be found for tens of fhousands in producing the goods the community wants. The trouble is that we have swung from one extreme to another. “We spent too much, and now we epond too little.’’ i