WORLD PROBLEMS

Hokitika Guardian, 24 January 1933, Page 8

WORLD PROBLEMS

GOVERNOR-GEN URAL'S VIEWS

OVER-PRO'DU'CHON AND THE GOLD STANDARD.

NAPIER, January 22

Th e Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, attended th e Napier Chamber of Commerce jubilee dinner last evening, the function being; held in conjunction with the New Napier Carnival, which i,s in progress at th e present time. Speaking on the subject of the g°’d itandaid and over-production, his Excellency stated that if there were a plentiful supply of gold or whatever might be th e token or medium oi world commodity exchange, and if ' n the absence of national tariffs, •bounties, and cartels, cheapness were allowed (free play, th e local isiH pln'es would .flow naturally to where there was a scarcity, and be bought free y with plentiful currency. “An extraordinary factor, particularly marked on the CJont-injit <>' Europe, is that with the fall in toe open world market of prices, the demand has not increased as j-t inevitably would have done under normal conditions .and universal freedom of tracie," eaid hi, 3 Exc"l|en c y. “But for Dm mrnmade impediments imposed in supposedly national interests, the cheapness of ford would have increased its consumption and facilitated absorption of the world’s output. “Similarly, there Is paid to be no actual .deficiency of the recognised medium of exchange—gold—but an aggregation of over 60 per cent, of what is normally -employed in international exchange in the coffers of two nations in .the world not, only reduce-' ’ commodity values in terms of gold, but aim cl ago- the wheels of international exchange, and incidentally of the .equitable settlement of o!d-stane:ng national oblinaDous. In the. meantime, the old-.fashioned clumsy system of barter of one .commodity for another is being attempted in several countries, and bimetallism is being advocated -in many quarters.’’

Continuing, h».s Excellency sa’d Internationa] readjustment was pressing and inevitable, unless economic ad-, versity and a serious lowering in the general r,cale of living were to become the normal instead of temporary world factors, and that must be recognised and acted upon at the forthcoming International Conference. Such readjustment would dispel from the minds of efficient and alert primary producers the bogey of over-production and fear of their occupation becoming permanently unprofitable.