“COME TO STAY”

Southland Times, Issue 21100, 4 June 1930, Page 5

“COME TO STAY”

LOWER LEVEL OF PRICES. BORROWING SHOULD CEASE. PRIME MINISTER CONGRATULATED. (Per United Press Association.) Dunedin, June 3. At the annual meeting of the Agricultural and Pastoral Society, Mr James Begg said Mr Forbes’ statement that he was determined to retrench should be welcomed by everyone who had the interests of the country at heart. He added: “The production of the farms has increased phenomenally in recent years. It can be still further greatly increased, but if farming becomes unprofitable owing to falling prices or to expenses being kept at artificial level, production will inevitably decline. The milk pays for the motor cars, silks and furs seen in city streets, it pays the interest on our debts and is the basis of our credit. The men, women and children who produce it are, on the average, the hardest worked’ and the worst paid people in the Dominion. This position is wrong and should be righted.” Continuing, Mr Begg said he believed the lower level of prices had come to stay. To meet the lower level he suggested that borrowing outside New Zealand should cease absolutely, that drastic reductions in public expenditure be immediately effected, and that compulsory arbitration be abolished.

Sir John Roberts also said he thought Mr Forbes was to be congratulated on speaking so plainly on the shortage of revenue. Too many politicians refrained from telling the honest truth in the way he had done. To his mind the best way of getting over the difficulties indicated in Mr Forbes’ statement was by increasing the country’s exports and maintaining the closest possible supervision of the expenditure. He had been .62 years in Dunedin and could remember periodical experiences of the kind with which New Zealand was confronted to-day. Curiously enough the periods of depression came in ten year cycles. Speaking of the wool industry the speaker said that better conditions had been forecasted from London.