ECONOMIC CONTROL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 February 1939, Page 5

ECONOMIC CONTROL

PROSPECTS IN NEW ZEALAND. \ / OPINIONS OF TASMANIAN MINISTER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) INVERCARGILL, February 6. The opinion that the Government’s policy of controlling credit is fully justified, and that it will succeed, was expressed by Mr Edmund Dwyer-Gray, Deputy-Premier of Tasmania, who is returning to Melbourne by the Maunganui. Interviewed today he advanced the opinion that already the Dominion was relatively a "workers’ paradise," and that it would become increasingly so. The Labour Party, he said, would govern the country for a generation or more.

“The present ‘financial crisis’ in New Zealand, which has resulted in the adoption of a system of licensing imports and exports early last December, will, I think, be successfully overcome,” continued Mr Dwyer-Gray. “Further, only New Zealand's importers, and by no’ means all of them, the New Zea? land daily Press—which is prejudiced and entirely and unreasonably antiLabourand the satellites of orthodox finance in London, Australia, and New Zealand, are putting up any sort of protest. “It might be that the purchasing power of the community has increased a little too rapidly., with the result that when the people had emptied all the stores of the Dominion of locally manufactured goods became unduly stimulated. However, it cannot be denied that the depletion of New Zealand’s reserve funds in London, accompanied by adverse changes in the Dominion’s overseas balance of trade, forced the Government to adopt strong means.

“The New Zealand Government’s policy is fully justified and it will succeed,” maintained Mr Dwyer-Gray. “Others are gloomily predicting big increases in costs of production and in the cost of living, entirely forgetful of the fact that Parliament has already enacted legislation which will enable the Government to control prices and prevent profiteering. The Government makes no secret of the fact that its present policy is intended to protect and raise the standard of living of the people of the Dominion, which today is probably the highest in the world. Already the country is relatively a workers' paradise. It will become increasingly so. and the Labour Party will undoubtedly rule this Dominion for a generation or more. In my opinion the Labour movement in New Zealand is destined to achieve one of the most complete triumphs in the story of man by making a real success of democracy for the first time in history. Nothing but a destroying war can prevent it."