DEMANDS THAT CONFLICT.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 July 1939, Page 4

DEMANDS THAT CONFLICT.

yiW ZEALAND very obviously is faced at present by financial problems of serious map-nilude and difficulty, and there is no doubt that, failing prompt and courageous action to bring them to a solution, these problems will assume speedily an even more formidable aspect. Some of (he demands that are now being made upon the Dominion by critics, both within and beyond ils borders, may be expected, however. Io die away as soon as the facts of the position have been examined in a just and dispassionate spirit. There are critics, for example, who are insisting- that the Government must institute without, delay a policy of saving and conservation of resources, and at the same lime are contending that we must observe and honour the Ottawa Agreement in a way that could only result in an increasing inflow of imports from Britain.

This is nothing' else than the advocacy of a policy pointing in two directly opposite directions. By keeping up or increasing the volume of our imports from Britain we shall dissipate rather than conserve resources. The only possible way of escape from the position in which we now find ourselves where oversea obligations are concerned is to devote to the payment of debt charges, and perhaps to the repayment of debt, a much larger part than we have thus devoted in recent times of the sterling funds derived from the sale of imports. Meeting our loan obligations to Britain, it follows quite inevitably that we must spend less on imports.

The utmost amount we can spend on imports, otherwise than bv borrowing or leaving our trade debts unpaid, is the balance of export returns left after debt charges and some other obligations have been met. These are elementary ami obvious facts, but they are being ignored as if they did not exist - in much current discussion of the financial position of the Domini on.