NEED FOR ACTION

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 401, 9 December 1932, Page 5

NEED FOR ACTION

("Post" Special Commissioner).

MEMBER'S PLEA VIGOROUS ATTACK UPON ' GOVT. BY MR. M. J. SAVAGE "STILL THINKING ABOUT IT"

Wellington, Thursday. Repeating his conviction that the real problem facing New Zealand is still one of finance, Mr. M. J. Savage, deputy-Leader of the Labour Party, spealcing on the Finance Bill in the Hous,e of R epres ent.atives to-nighfl, declared that tlie State had to choose b'etween the continued short supply by the banks of credit and curreney at high rates of interest, and public control of banking services with an elasticity in tbe supply of money which would guarantee that, as production and services increased, the means of payment also \ would be raised. Mr. Savage said that while production had been inereasing rapidly, consumption due to lack of purch'asing j power, had fallen just as rapidly.

Corrective Necessary It was in that respect that some corrective must he applied. Instead of keeping pace with increased production, purchasing power had been deliberately handicapped through the reduced wages and the severe con-trac-tion in the suppli^s o-f credit and curreney. "The depression will never be lifted by pious resolutions," he s-aid. "The time has come for bold and well planned action on tbe part of the State." State Bank Control Public control of the banking services in the manner suggested, Mr. Savage continued, would involve the payment of increased wages, the planning of production and marketing and generally the playing of a. more . conscious part hy the State in the economic life of the Dominion. There is no other soiution to the problem facing us," he declared. "It is 1 only a question fas to wlren we should begin. One can only express amazement that, at the height of the greatest crisis in the history of New Zealand, this Finance Bill, although it touches .practically every subject under the sun, still does not contain one line of help or soiution." Continuing, Mr. Savage said that the proposal to adjourn the House for nearly two months while the eountry was in the throes of a crisis, should convince thinking people that the Government had fallen far short of reasonable expectations and had given .ample evidence of the failure of the component parts of the Coalition administration to hury their historic differences in order to make good their promises to the eountry.

Fixed Charges When the Coalition was formed, and during the general election, the appropriation of money for essential services had heen made increasingly difficult through fixed charges on account of debt obligations arising out of the poliey of substituting currency for taxation which was so freely engaged in during and since the wai'. In addition, the people had heen involved in huge liabilities to private banking corporations whose machinery was used to raise money at high rates of interest. After referring to the circumstances which led up to the forma- , tion of the Coalition and the undertakings given to formulate a constructive poliey for future (action, Mr. Savage! declared that the only poliey which had so far emerged from Cabinet was one of wage smashing and general hrieaking down with the result that the gk p between the people's incomes and liabilities was greater to-day than it had ever been in the history of New- -Zealand.

Ottawa Red Herring The Ottawa red herring had heen drawn across the political scent and despite everything, they had heen told, the electors of Motueka had failed to materialise. Ottawa failed to produce the impossible. It could not build on a shattered foundation; trade could not be expanded on falling incomes which was the order of the day in every part of the Empire. While the Ministers of Public Wox'ks and Finance were discussing the impossible at Ottawa and swearing eternal fi'iendship to Great Britain, a brother Minister in New Zealand was enthusiastically advising further trade with Japan and the East.

Bad to Worse In view of the reasons given for the formation of the Coalition, it was interesting to note that 15 months had passed since the merger and the Government had not passed' the investigation stages. The eountry had gone from had to worse and the Govei'nment proposed to take another expensive adjournment to give the Ministers time to frame a poliey. They had already spent 15 months in pondering over prohlems that continuously increased, and never on one occasion had they given any evidence of having developed a new thought. They now wanted another two months to think about it.