SUPPLY OF MEDICAL MEN IN NEW ZEALAND

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21290, 9 October 1934, Page 7

SUPPLY OF MEDICAL MEN IN NEW ZEALAND

TO TH« IDITOR OT THE VBMS3. Sir,—Dr. Mac Gibbon's letter in Saturday's issue is interesting in that while it shows that the results of five years of depression have got him worried it also shows that we are a long way from the end of it. If we are ever to reach prosperity again it must be by the concentrated thought and effort of the more intelligent elements of the community. It can safely be said that a doctor's views should be representative of those elements. Tr. Mac Gibbon's letter shows us the evils of slump conditions as they affect the medical profession, but the same applies more or less to all professions, bu»n es,es ; and trades—even to the kn ghts of muscle who wield the shovel. (The Waimakariri River Trust is now hiring a hiSe caterpillar drag-line excavator, fn spite of the generally-accepted theory that unemployment is the problem which should rather have led the teust to reduce the size of the shovels inH Dut more men on.) The remedies put forward by Dr. MacGlbbon are disappointing because they do not touch the fundamental rause In his own sphere of work he would at once recognise similar remedies as quackery. I would suggest that we are living in an imaginary prison, the bars of which are composed I

of our belief in certain fetishes, the high priests of which are the bankers, who tell us we are poor. The prison is unlike other prisons in that we cannot walk out of the open door individually. We can get out only when we realise collectively that the bars do not exist. We know that more wealth in goods and services is being produced each year v/ith less labour each year. We know that a quarter of our population is short of the means of acquiring all the goods and services they need and can use. More than another quarter of our population is in dire need because, having produced those goods and services for the other quarter, they are unable to sell them for enough to recover the money equivalent of their costs. Raising prices will not help them to sell. However, there is a way of increasing the purchasing power of these and of all our people, but I cannot go into the details here. What I do suggest is that as Dr. Mac Gibbon is shortly voyaging to England he take with him Field's "Truth about the Slum >." Hattersleys' "This Age of Plenty," the Southampton Chamber of Commerce report on the nature of the crisis, also "Christianity and the Crisis" and "This Unemployment: Disaster or Opportunity." The above list seems formidable, but the quietness of sea travelling provides an excellent opportunity for anyone to become acquainted with the new philosophy which is to save the world from disaster. By the time he reaches London, Dr. Mac Gibbon should be sufficiently interested to call at No. 70 High Holborn, where he can make the acquaintance of further literature and of the extent to which the new outlook on economics has permeated the intellectual class at Home. Perhaps then he will return to New Zealand with a more optimistic and clearer outlook, with a determination to do his bit to prevent the Empire running amok, as the rest of Europe seems determined to do.—Yours, etc., W. B. BRAY. October 8, 1934.