TOO COMPLACENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 69, 22 March 1934, Page 17

TOO COMPLACENT.

TENDENCY TO "BLEAT"

PEOPLE IN DOMINION.

XEGION LEADER'S VIEWS

That smugness and self-complacency, together with a pitiful tendency to "bleat" to the Government for help on any and every occasion, had so affected the outlook of New Zealanders as to constitute a definite danger to the country, was" the opinion expressed in an interview with the Cliristcliurch "Times" by Dr. R. Campbell Begg, the leader of the New Zealand Legion. In a review of the dangers which face the Dominion at the present time, Dr. Campbell Begg reiterated the contention that New Zealanders must rralise the country's limitations, and regard themselves as still in the pioneering stage rather than as a nation which had "arrived." On the subject of trade with Britain, Dr. Campbell Begg said that New Zealand's complete disappearance from the British market could be adjusted a comparatively short time by the increase in the manufacture of margarine and the readjustment of trade treaties with Denmark, the Baltic States, the Argentine and other countries. Where the defence of the Empire was concerned, New Zealand did not form a stray outpost, but on the contrary was a definite liability, anxiety and expense, and the country was certainly not pulling its weight. "We have apparently lost our sense of humour," he continued. "Britain suggested a discussion 011 quotas, and the discussion rages back and forth for I months. Finally, when we re-open the subject we are told in plain though diplomatic terms 'It does not matter, thank you, we have mad© other arrangements,' and we don't even perceive the delightful snub." Great Britain, he said, by the exchange equalisation fund, not only depreciated the pound to 12/9, but actually manipulated the value of it from day to day to assist trade.

Dairy industry's Position. It was vital, and never more so than in the light of the resolutions before the dairy industry conference, that no help should be given any industry by protective tariffs, subsidies or price fixation guarantees, without the demand for something equivalent in return in the interests of the people. Any assistance criven, to the dairy industry, for example, or any other plan permitting profits to those engaged in it, should be accompanied by rigid regulations to secure good quality at reasonable prices, adequate wages to the employed, and I the release of land held by individuals in excess of what they were able to employ effectively, either themselves or by the engagement of labour at adequate

rates. . The country's insularity, ho continued, had produced active results m that so many Ministers of the Crown and other public men had never known any world other than that bound y the coasts of the Dominion. New Zealand's accomplishments in 6port had obscured their vision to the realisation of New Zealand's insignificance in the world schcme of things. The tragedy was that New Zealand had every opportunity of building up population and getting capital to become a real nation and a world force.