CRISIS FORESEEN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 31, 7 February 1939, Page 5

CRISIS FORESEEN

LABOUR POLICY CRITICISED “DAY OF RECKONING COMING" MR. ADAM HAMILTON’S VIEWS WELLINGTON, Feb. 4. Factors responsible tor the present financial difficulties were discussed by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Hamilton, in a statement last evenaig. The crises, he said, was not inevitable. The Labour Government had produced it, just as had been prophesied it would. The drastic steps tne Government was taking to-day were to deal with effects and not causes. The control of imports and exchange was the first effort to stem the tide, but there must be more and more expedients ol an equally unpleasant nature to follow. To remedy the situation a reversal of the present Socialist policy was necessary.

“To make it obvious to every man and woman in New Zealand that the Dominion conference of importers was not simply a political manoeuvre aimed at discrediting the Labour Government, the National Party had deliberately withheld its comment on the restrictions recently imposed,” said Mr. Hamilton. “Now that the business community has stated its case, and now that a considered answer has been given by the Government, no case can be prejudiced by some plain speaking by me. “There is no pleasure in seeing a prophecy of disaster fulfilled, but it is my duty as Leader of the Opposition ta state bluntly that the present financial crisis, coming as it does with remarkable swiftness after three years of the greatest prosperity, was forecast by the National Party ever since the Government took office in 1935. It is no easy task to persuade people enjoying temporary benefits that trouble lies ahead, but that task I have never shirked, nor has it been shirked by any member of my party. Now all thinking pople must be alarmed at the Government's desperate expedient, disguised as policy, which it hopes will extricate itself from its self-made difficulties."

Funds in Credit. Mr. Hamilton said the one reason why the Government had been able to stave off the day of reckoning so long was because ot the legacy left by the National Party—over 140,000,000 of sterling funds in London, and the variou. Government departments in credit. Those savings had dwindled to a mere nothing, and the credits had been dissipated and squandered. The Reserve Bank had been drawn upon to such an extent that the danger signal had been hoisted. The crisis was upon them and it must develop inevitably. To add to the tension, Labour policy had intensified the crisis by strangling production; even export income was falling.

The drastic steps Ihe Government was taking to-day were to deal with effects and not causes. To remedy the effects, there must be a reversal of the present Socialist policy. To restore confidence, business must thrive and employment must be productive. Already men and women had been thrown out of employment. If the Government continued on its course, more and more would be forced out. Those still in work would have to pay more to keep those who were unemployed. The bubble was then burst and the standard of living was forced down. Capital and Labour. “To reverse this movement the war between capital and labour nurtured by the Labour Government must end," said Mr. Hamilton. “The employee must realise that his interests are irrevocably bound up with those of his employer, and vice versa. Every facility must be given to capital, both inside and outside New Zealand. Without absolute co-operation on sound

lines, there can be no founding of new industries or expansion of those of today. There has been no sudden emergency to-day. The Labour crop of spendthrift extravagance, sown successively for three seasons, is being harvested. “The National Party always attacked the Socialist policy proclaimed by the Government as 'spending its way to prosperity—onward and upward.’ The Government would not listen. It scoffed. The majority of the people would not listen. The prophecy is fulfilled and the Government seeks to save its life by desperate expedients and the people are suffering already. They will suffer more. In three years of exceptional prosperity, this Government has run through all the available funds in New Zealand and more, and so depleted the London funds that the Government itself has to declare a state of emergency. “I cannot believe that Ihis crisis was not foreseen by the Government, and I am certain that the people of New Zealand will not be ready to forgive a Government who, but a few months ago, explicitly denied that there was any possibility of such a state of emergency being at hand. The price of success at the election unquestionably impaired political integrity. The people will pay."