Politics and Economics.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20280, 4 July 1931, Page 14

Politics and Economics.

It is to be hoped that no one will be prevented by its length from reading and re-reading the address given last night by Mr H. D. Acland to the members of the Christchurch Citizens' Association. Mr Acland did not attempt to say pleasant things —mainly because he is not a politican; but he said' true things, some of them so arresting as to be sensational. For example, there was this,- which, whether he agrees or disagrees on other points, ought to take the average man's breath away: With wool at 5d a pound and fat ewes at 7s Bd, and many fat ewes were a few weeks ago selling for little over half this sum, it would take the gross proceeds of the wool of over 1500 sheep, or 550 ewes, to pay one relief worker a wage rate of 15s 4d per day, for five and a half days a week for fifty weeks. At the same daily rate of wages the gross proceeds of our total wool clip would at present pay the wages of less than half our unemployed for a year. And it is not the worst feature of the situation that "few of our poli"ticians or voters appear to realise" what it means. The worst feature is that the politician to-day who is making most noise—the representative of Labour —is determined that it shall not be realised, or even dimly sensed, by the voters in whom he is most interested. Wages and the standard of living are being bolstered up politically instead of being regulated economically, since the demagogue's power is gone the day the voter realises that he is being fooled. Unfortunately, he can carry on a little longer without being compelled to face the facts as they are, since the subsidies already paid to industry and wages have been generous enough to obscure the relation between work and wages from all but the truly honest and discerning. However, the light is breaking through here and there, and if the Government has the courage to make everybody feel, and shoulder, his responsibility for the unemployed, the turn of economics will come. It is interesting that Labour's representatives are already protesting in Parliament against the " inequality " of the proposal that all should pay the same amount per pound. If the Government stands firm the interesting things will begin to be said soon by the man who earns the pound.