MOST IMPORTANT.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 October 1921, Page 5

MOST IMPORTANT.

WORK OK THE SESSION. DEPRESSION LESS MARK-ED THAN ELSEWHERE. Speaking at the civic reception tendered him at Wellington on Monday, Mr. Massey referred to the work ahead of Parliament. He had come baxik, he said, to what he regarded as exceptionally important business here. He considered the business to be done during the present session to be the most important that the Parliament of New Zealand had had to deal with for many years, and the Government was not afraid to face it. We were experiencing what was generally referred to as the aftermath of war, and that was a thing that we could not expect to escape. When other countries were suffering a period of depression we could not expect to get off scot free. But what we were going through here was not to be compared to the depression that they were suffering in more important countries —he meant countries more im-portant in the matter of population. The fact was that we ought to be pleased that our lines were cast in such pleasant surroundings as those which existed in this country. FINANCIAL PROBLEMS. New Zealand had financial problems to tackle, and it must have -been noticed with pleasure the amount that was subscribed for the last loan—that was, the supplementary loan. It was placed on the market and he arranged with the High Commissioner to have it dealt with as early as possible, and that loan—3t was only £386,000 as far as he remembered—realised 99.5 per cent, 'giose were the best terms a Dominion loan had been placed at in the last number of years. He was not sure that it was not equal to the terms on which the British loan was placed. He did not want to go back to the London market for money for some time —he did not think it would be wise—except for one small matter that they wanted money for. A GOOD COUNTRY. Our national income had fallen, and one of the causes of this was the drop in wool. He believed that wool prices as compared with the prices of the last five years had fallen about 65 per cent. At any rate, there was not a pastoralist that was able to show a balance on the right side for the last twelve months. That must reflect on the whole of the people. Our national income had fallen, and the business thing to do was regulate the expenditure accordingly. That was one of our problems. Wo had to bring our expenditure within our income and at the same time reduce taxation if we could where it was interfering with trade and development. If Parliament could do that, that alone would be good work accomplished during the session. But the Government would want the assistance of every individual citizen in the country If it was going to carry that through successfully. And when that was done we would be able to look back and say that we 'had entered on another long period of prosperity. This country was so good that it would not remain financially depressed for long, but the sooner we got our finances in a thoroughly satisfactory state the better for all of