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Hokitika Guardian, 27 February 1932, Page 4

When Sir Mark Sheldon who lately toured New Zealand, returned to New South 'Wales, he was interviewed at Sydney and said: “New Zealand is just beginning to realise that it ha.', to do something. They had a hit of a shock over there when they found that they were unable to borrow money in London. They may find tliat they are going to have a very tight- time, but they are not going to get as low as Australia did, and they are facing their difficulties in the right way. The trouble is largely one of high values placed on land, and these will have to he adjusted.” This view of our country’s plight carries some little comfort, hut it was not the high values referred to that created the present depression. At the same time it is true that the high values at this juncture is a contributing factor to the stringency in finance now prevalent. The bask of our difficulty is the drop in produce values; which, when at the former figure, inflated land values. It i s true probably that if land values came down now in sympathy with the produce values, the producer would he on better terms with the mortgagee, but the difficulty is about the writing down of existing land values, and the effect such an net would produce. Probably the writing down will come inevitably as properties change hands, but that is a slow process. The more immediate result lies in an improving market for produce. A lift in this direction would assist to work wonders and place New “ealand along the route to better times. Meantime producers must be helped reasonably and in turn they should increase the volume of their output.