A TASK HARDLY BEGUN.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1939, Page 6

A TASK HARDLY BEGUN.

r pilAT very little Ims been clone as yet Inwards rectifying' the serious slate of affairs brought about by I lie depletion 01. I he Dominion’s London funds is made evident, in the figures 01. external trade for the production year which ended on June 30 hist. Exports for that period were valued at £57,851,312 and imports at £5fi,4!)9,(i(.)7, leaving an excess of exports over imports of only £1,351,7'05, as compared with £4,377,307 in 1937-38 anti £14,545,000 in 193 G-37. Our trading in 1938-39 has thus produced only a fraction of the amount of some £12,000,000 needed annually Io meet, oversea interest and other charges, not- to mention the additional millions the Dominion is now committed to finding for debt redemption. (July slight and temporary relief will be afforded by Ihe grant of British export credits. The root remedy imperatively demanded is an early and substantial reduction of imports. The difficulties of the existing position are illustrated and emphasised sharply in the rationing of funds required for the payment of imports which was the subject of a statement by the Act ing-Alinisler of Binance (Air. Eraser) published yesterday. 11 is very much in the interests of all sections of the population that the posilion should be cleared up as speedily as possible by the re-establishment of an adequate margin of exports over imports.

There is in these circumstances a good deal Io he said tor a suggestioii made by the president of the Wellington Manufacturers’ Association (Air. \V. li. Stevens) that the financial affairs of the Dominion have gone beyond the realm of polities and that “the Government undoubtedly should take the people . . . into its confidence and give us all the opportunity of helping in a national emergency.” Much, no doubt, might be done in this way to ensure the concentration of resources on the imports the Dominion' can still afford to buy and also to stimulate the internal production ami use of commodities which may in some measure make good the deficiency caused by a shortage of imports. 'flic limitations of mandatory action applied to the, complex field of trade are being imide more clearly manifest as time goes on. The possibilities of voluntary and co-operative action by the community in helping to bring about the adjustment that, is needed so urgently most certainly should not be neglected.