OUTSPOKEN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 566, 24 June 1933, Page 5

OUTSPOKEN

i (Press Assn.—

BISHOP LiS.TON'S VIEW THE PEOPLE'S WELFARE CALLS FOR JUDICIOUS ' BORROWING DRIFT AND INACTION

By Telegraph— Copyright).

Auckland, Friday. In- the course of a letter to the Mayor of Auckland, Dr. Liston, Catholic Bishop of Auckland, giv.es his hearty endorsement to the proposals made to use the- country's credit to save the people from suffering and, hardship. "As one closely in touch with the needs and overgrowing hardships of a large, section of the ordiiiary people," he says, "I feel Your Yf orship has rendered distinct service to the country. "We have reached: in the third year of the depression the. exhaustion point of deflation," says Dr. Liston. "Numerous expedients bave been tried, but the depression is, not ending itself. Hitherto the people bave shown endurance and courage beyond .praise, and are ready, if need, be, for greater sacrifices, but to-day a spirit of despondency prevails almost every where. Your Worship has asked the country to face these realities and. holdly try another poliey. The issue is a clear one," Discussing the policy of the Government, Dr. Liston asks why it should be necessary to balance the budget year by year. If it is dangerous to leave the budget unbalanced when prices are rising, is it not equally dangerous ' to seek at, all costs to balance it when prices are falling? To balaii'ce the budget sounds well, but ihe requirements of a country vary with peace and war, booms and depression, and the budget should vary with them. "In these circumstances," Dr. Liston said, "we may well go in for a policy of borrowing, sound borr owing, justified hy the natural resources of the counti-y and the spirit of the people. If we are going to help ourselves to the heginning of economic recovery and not he content to wait and wait on the outside world it seems to me that the only means of recreating the purchasing power of the people is through a reasonably large extension of our national credit for useful public works, and esp'eeially for land development. The Lesser Evil "Parliament can do this, as Your Worship has proposed, by the issue. of b.onds, and there is sufficient money in the country itself to buy these bonds. "There are, ' no doubt, disadvantages in such a larges issue of bonds, but these are, it seems to many of us in touch with the lives of the people, trifling in comparison with the evilresults of a policy of drift and inaction."