INDUSTRY UNDER LABOUR GOVERNMENT

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22355, 19 March 1938, Page 22

INDUSTRY UNDER LABOUR GOVERNMENT

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir,—This Labour Government seems determined to ruin all our • industries, and if by any evil chance they succeed in getting back this coming election they will ruin the country. The wheat industry is in a bad way and the sheepmen likewise; for it now costs about 5s a head more than formerly to put a* sheep or a lamb into the xreczing works. Wool is at about cost the boot industry is in queer street; the woollen mills are finding it difficult to carry on; and the unemployed are just about , the only people who are flourishing. ~ . „ As evidence of how things are goin to in the country, one of my neighbours told me yesterday that he was selling most of his horses, thereby reducing his labour bill by one-half and at the same time reducing his stock by 15 per cent.; for he found he was not receiving value for the money expended. Three other neighbours and myself between us have for the above, reasons given up wheatgrowing, thereby cutting out over 10,000 bushels ofi_ wheat between us and doing away with six men Unfortunately, we will have to find our share of the money to pay these men, who should be working on our farms. Another reason for giving up wheatgrowing is the difficulty of obtaining any domestic help; for the farmers do not see why they should make slaves of their _ womenfolk in order to bolster up an industry that in most cases does not return much, if any, profit. To right the position some thousands of domestics should be brought into the country; but one knows it is hopeless to expect a Labour Government like, ours’to do, any thing useful like that. The small birthrate can also bo put down to the shortage of domestics, to a great extent; for women naturally are not prepared to bring children into the world when they know the trouble there will be to have them properly looked after. People should remember that Socialism, or Bolshevism, or whatever you like to call it, means loss of freedom, which is quite against British ideas. In Soviet Russia, after 20 years of mob rule, they are still shooting or doing something even worse to people who dare to oppose them. This Labour Government seems to think it can make our little Dominion prosperous by a policy of waste and extravagance; but all thinking people know this is not the case. During the two years it has been in office, the value of all freehold land has depreciated more than 25 per cent., arid yet we are asked to believe that the country was never more prosperous.—Yours, etc., COCKATOO. March 17, 1938.