CAN LIBERTY SURVIVE?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 262, 4 November 1932, Page 6

CAN LIBERTY SURVIVE?

Your thoughtful leading article in Satoday's issue is one thart, must command the attention of all who hare watched the progress and experiences of New Zealand since its earliest days, and surely no country has suffered more than we have for the want of such a dictator as the one now ruling Italy. From the inauguration of the public works policy, when Sir Julius Vogel obtained his first loan of two million pounds from England, we have seen a continuous stream of borrowing, and this, irrespective of whether the Government of the day was Liberal or Conservative, has caused, we aTe told, our national indebtedness to be greater per head than that of any other country, and our borrowing has only ceased because loans are no longer obtainable. Now can anyone reasonably say these .public loans were obtained under any national system, based upon the requirements of the country as a whole, and not to advance the interests and gratify the ambition of particular localities that were jealous of what they considered was undue expenditure in other centres? We all know what has taken place, and our unfortunate economic position at the present time is a striking example of what is possible under the name of democracy, and would certainly not have been so under any dictator, possessing a particle of common 6ense. Liberty and freedom are beautiful words and essentially British, but under our present democratic system we in New Zealand to iha-ve paid very dearly for them. E. C. SHEPHERD.