RESERVES USED UP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 May 1939, Page 8

RESERVES USED UP

MR HAMILTON CRITICISES GOVERNMENT. THREAT TO THE STANDARD OF LIVING. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. While he did not want to increase the Government’s embarrassment at the present time, said the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Hamilton) today, he felt compelled to reply to misstatements made by the Prime Minister. Now that the Government had used up reserves, it was going to borrow so that it would have money to spend, but its policy would continue to undermine the standard of living in New Zealand. The real foundation of the standard of living was production and not paper money. Production had declined and money secured by borrowing would not prevent the decline in the country’s wealth which came from exports. The Government had been leaning heavily on the people’s savings, but deposits in the Post Office. Savings Bank had declined and Mr Savage now had to appeal to “the bloated capitalists” for a loan and also to ask overseas bondholders for more money. The Government policy had not only materially reduced the purchasing power of the New Zealand pound, but had brought about a decline in production and so threatened a major disaster and a real reduction in the standard of living.