NEW ZEALAND WORKERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 123, 26 May 1932, Page 22

NEW ZEALAND WORKERS.

Your correspondent "Observer" is to be commended for his'remarks in your issue of the 17th instant. First: Aβ to the light sentences given recently on some looters and rioters. I quote from some of your reports of eases lately. A female ii'icitcr of lawlessness, called by tho magistrate at Christchurch "a menace to society," is ordered to come up for sentence in eix months, and to spend ono month in a Salvation Army Home. A man breaks into a house and steals a stove. One month's imprisonment. Two men charged with theft of rugs from one owner and conversion of a motor ear owned by another person. Sentenced to one month. Another offender. recently charged had been already admitted .to probation three times. And <so on, —ad nauseam. Is it any wonder that theft is rife and lawlessness is increasing? Second: As "Observer" says, the workers have been spoilt —most of them do not know what work is. I, ' too, have worked and watched others work in other countries, and know, as he says, that we have been living in a fool's paradise. The majority of people in this country have been spoilt by their parents and by politicians until like the Romans in their degenerate days, _ all they want is "food and sports," at some one else's expense. And the young people aro being encouraged to cadge from others. If anything is wanted "Let ue take up a collection" is the motto. Instead of exercising self-reliance and economy they lean on others. Thrift and provision for the future are practised by tho minority. and they are being bled to support the thriftless and improvident. And worst of all, our politicians discourage the virtues of frugality and eelf-reliance by passing Acts which cause, people to expect help from the State, "instead of relying on their own work and limiting their wants. Too much slackness and too much extravagance are indeed (as he says) the daring faults of the majority of Unpeople, and I may add oi! the•Government. FAi IM-fl-iN.