DEPRESSION AND RETRENCHMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 210, 5 September 1930, Page 6

DEPRESSION AND RETRENCHMENT.

Judging from the constant dictation to the Government by the Chambers of Commerce,'" the Canterbury Sheepowners' Union and the Welfare League in regard to retrenchment and the reduction of wages, one would think that they had a mandate from the people to run the country solely in the interests of a minority of the population. Did they during their sixteen years of office ever do anything. to promote a-better distribution of wealth;"* or to increase production by throwing open; the land to the people? ' Not they. They ; delighted in an orgy of land speculation, with, the "result that the working farmers are now ■ strangled by mortgages and complain of thenoverhead expenses. The big landholders aiul speculators, after taking the cream off the country, now shriek about "high taxation' and agitate for the reduction of the wages of those who, both in good and 'bad times, knew nothing but a ceaseless struggle for existence. The present condition of New Zealand is primarily due to Tory misrule. Many "moneyed people selfishly decline to let capital : be employed by Labour in productive channels, simply because the Arbitration Court exists to see that Labour gets as fair a deal as possible under the existing economic system. But this state of things will not persist. The time will come when the people will organise and take to the land with the primary object of securing for themselves food, shelter and clothing, and of living a free, healthy, independent life. „__„_ JL'STILh.