AUSTRALIA’S POSITION

Hokitika Guardian, 29 November 1930, Page 3

AUSTRALIA’S POSITION

MR JOHN FULLER’S PREDICTION “Australia sounds worse in the papers than it really is,” declared Mr John Fuller, or Fullers’ Theatres, Ltd. Australia, on his arrival in Christchurch on Tuesday. Mr Fuller predicts that the Commonwealth will recover iroin the depression within two years. “Because of the continual interstate trade, and the fact that it is largely a self-supporting country, Australia can’t fall down to an extremely low ebb,” he said. “The banks have played a greater part in the national fortitude than a lot of people give them credit for. Interna lly-rajised loans. 1 think, are a great menace to the Commonwealth’s future prosperity. If we raised all our loans in London, as you do, we would not have nearly so much unemployment. The trouble is that 'local money, if taken by the nation, cannot be used for private' enterprise. London, on the other hand, will lend money to the nation, but hot to the individual. Gold Discoveries. “Cold discoveries, I am glad to see. are being encouraged by the Government; this is the sort of things that will do away with depression. All the same, I think it will he proha lily two y<virs before everything gets right again. In the individual States, the big deficits have been caused chiefly hv tlm railways. AYe suffer, too, from dual Government. They make a race of it. which is to grab the most taxes-, and the taxpayer gets the worst of it. N 'w Zealand is much better off. The worldwide depression hits you, of course, but not with such dire effects.”