WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 28 January 1933, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE DOMINION’S FINANCE

IN UNEXPERIENCED 1 HANDS

(Special to “Guardian.”)

WELLINGTON, January 25

The retirement of the Hon. W. Downie Stewart' from the Coalition Government is a. nnioh greater ('surprise and shock, for the time being, to the people of Wellington than is tlie resort of the remaining members of the Cabinet to a rise in thq rate of exchange in the interests of the primary producers. It is but a few weeks il go that Mr Stewart returned to the Dominion bearing the eulogies of financiers at Ottawa and in London, and now he has lain down, for the present, a mastery of national finance which none of his colleagues yet has achieved. It will be remembered that Mr Steward eqme into the House of Representatives in 11f1.5, bale and hearty enough to take an officers’ part in the .Great War and sacrifice much in the service of the nation, but it was not until Kl 9 that lie became a member of the Massey Ministry and of inestimable value to his chief. “TIME WILL TELL.” The Right Hon. J. G. Coates, who is, by the way, to occupy the position at the Treasury vacated by Mr Stewart, takes an.airy view of the situation as it appeared to him at the! week-end. “The .exchange rate is a controversial problem on which there has been no lack of discussion,” lie telln the public at large. ‘‘The pros and cons have been set forth exhaustively, and the arguments are fresh in the public mind, so that it is needless to say much at this juncture. The wisdom of the action that has been taken can only be borne out by experience. I believe that the decision of the Government to take a part, and, indeed, t 0 assume, responsibility in the matter will be shown to be justified.# Time will toll.” This is all very fine and largo as iar ?.s it goes, but it leaves the average taxpayer wondering what it all means. WHAT OF OTTAWA ? Tt has been whispered abroad that Mr Coates’ achievements, at 1 , Ottawa have not borne all the fruit that was expected of them.- “It is an astonishing thing,” says the “Post” in an editorial, “that the man who so clear ly and so sympathetically expounded the' policy t 0 which each and every Dominion subscribed at Ottawa should now have persuaded the Government of Ills own Dominion to adopt a policy of an exactly opposite kind. Formally,' of course, the exchange rate is a different matter from the tariff, but in some of their effects the two .are identical. The lb per cent .exchange rate will damage British trade* ten times As much as the additional tariff reference of 2* per cent will benefit it, and it will apply to all British exports in this country instead of the four items specified in the Ottawa Agreement.” It really does look as if "the new Minister of Finance were beset by more than pn.g embaiiassment. LABOUR’S PART. Of course as early as possible after the resumption of Parliament Mr H. E. Holland, the leader of the Labour Party, will have a vote of “no confidence” of some sort against the shaken Coalition Government and so give Mr Forbes and bis colleagues an opportunity to bUrtiish up tlieii holiday making battalions. Addressing his own people at Westport last evening Mr Holland (reiterated the old story of how the present financial trouble could be overcome by “a judicious use of the credit of the country.” This panacea seems now to have been adopted, or at any rate set isido for further .examination by the Coalition leaders, who have so far gone farther towaids its application that have Mr Holland and his colleagues. It is conceivable that the rise in the rate of exchange may appeal to noth the Coalition Government and the Labour Opposition and that the outcome of the future may he a better informed party lead by Mr Stewart,