THE OUTLOOK

Hokitika Guardian, 31 December 1930, Page 2

THE OUTLOOK

WHAT WILL THE NEW YEAR BRING '! (N. Z. National Review). The passing of 'the Old Year is marked by an ebb-tide which has reached a very low mark in our national prosperity, and some of our iainthearted ones threaten to pass from a. condition of gloom to panic-stricken terror, as though the bottom had fallen out of the country, or the roof baa been blown up by some upheaval and we were about to be engulfed in the descending debris. A world-wide wave of depression in prices of foodstuffs and raw materials has reduced to nearly one-half our average returns. Wool has suffered most, and a fall of £7,000,000 is expected this season. Meat drops in sympathy and the returns for nutter are now below production cost, while our cheese is under a cloud through injudicious and short-sighted adjustment of its cream content. Our farmers nre becoming panicky and loudly demanding a moratorium, the wiping. Out of land tax on farmers, and remission of all Customs duties, \ prominent grain broker, Sir James Gunsoii, calls for a tripartite National Cabinet with two extra years of life for Parliament, and a “generous” borrowing policy for public works anu local body loans. Very few competent judges have much faith in Parliament being able to do anything.. Our politicians and ministers are not the type to be of much practical use in a national emergency, and even if we j could get the money in London the [ talk of borrowing generously is suicidal. Our troubles are due to both internal and external causes. Experts differ widely as to the root of the world-wide crash in wholesale prices, and our contributions to the world’s store of. goods are so insignificant that we in Now Zealand can do little to influence world parities. But our internal troubles are easy to diagnose and can be cured by prompt and drastic remedies. We rode on top to the post-war .boom and had a good time while it lasted, as was only human. Our imports doubled, from £31,C00,030 in 1919 to £62,000,090 in 1920, instead, of concentrating on developing the impetus war isolation. had given our local industries. Land values were inflated to the extreme prices our produce had reached, as-though . those boom values in experts would remain permanent. Then came deflation of currency and the return to -the gold- standard, when Britain very nobly met her war debts by- paying -2s in the £ gold, countries like France devalued, the franc, .and paid is in the. £. Deflation ill currency meant deflation in world prices, and down they crashed, but land values did not follow suit. Now, we are suffering from, under-* production of goods for internal use, and over-consumption of- imported ones. We cannot meet our interest and repayment bills abroad and at the same time export sufficient to pay for £50,000,000 of imports a year. We must set to work to re-value and devalue our land to reduce production costs, and- we must develop a selfreliant policy of producing everything possible- for ourselves. We weathered a worse crisis in the ’eighties; and can do it, again with tho same • determination and confidence.