GENERAL ELECTION

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25961, 15 November 1949, Page 7

GENERAL ELECTION

.• Sir, —Mr Holland should know that there is no need to go to the zoo or to Onekaka for white elephants. We have a real Tory beauty at Middleton. Some years ago a Tory Government (“imported” two engineers from England* to plan and construct shunting yards. The Middleton shunting yard is the result. After two or three shunters had lost their lives, the Tory Government declared it dangerous and closed the yard—£loo,ooo gone west. —Yours, etc., SPOTLIGHT. November 14, 1949.

Sir, —“Johnnie,” if an agricultural sheep farmer and lamb fattener, may have £3OOO in the meat and wool pools. An accountant can quickly and accurately ascertain the amount of individual shares. If Wool and Meat Boards control farmers’ funds , by act of Parliament, then the owners and earners can only regain control by act of Parliament. The election gives all farm “Johnnies” an opportunity to claim their share of the pooled funds successfully if they make it quite clear that they will only vote for a policy granting them their individual right to their share. The individual shares are so large that it is only the grossly careless that will neglect their responsibilities in this mattet. The boards come between the individual and his responsibilities and that is a moral wrong as well as a material one.—Yours, etc., H. J. BUTTLE. Darfield, November 12, 1949.

Sir,—? have heard Labour leaders complain that the daily newspapers are unfair in their treatment of our Socialist Ministers; that even in your reporting there is a bias in favour of the National Party. I would like to draw attention to an episode where the opposite appears to be the case. On October 28 last you published a photograph of Mr Semple speaking at the opening of the pensioners’ flats at Riccarton. The Minister was gracefully screened by a pleasing display of flowering shrubs. You did not say these shrubs were planted for the occasion, at the taxpayers’ expense, and subsequently removed. You also failed to tell your readers—no doubt because you were not informed—that most of the flats were unfinished, and only one, or perhaps two, were occupied.— Yours, etc., WINDOW DRESSING. November 14, 1949.

Sir, —Mr Parlane may try to boost Mr Manning, but on November 30 he will find that St. Albans ratepayers and property-ownbrs are not foolish enough to be caught twice with the bait that fooled them in the last Tramway Board election. What happened? As soon as the Labour Tramway Board, under Mr Manning, got the tramwavs into an almost hopeless muddle, these Labourites looked around for a scheme bv which they could squeeze more money out of the pockets of the ratepayers. The result was a bill sponsored and passed by the Socialist-Labour Government; and now the board may add anything up to 100 per cent, to our tramway rates. —Yours, etc., WE’VE HAD ’EM. November 14, 1949.

Sir, —The Labour Government realises the utmost importance to New Zealand of a comparatively prosperous farming community, and tne farmer who is honestly concerned with the future welfare of the industry has no quarrel with the Government in respect of the moneys held in the stabilisation accounts. The ship is more important than any member of its crew; but H. J. Buttle would reward the cabin-boy for scuttling the ship. His contention that the National Party would gain votes bv pandering to'the desires of individual farmers is not supported by impartial analysis. To win the confidence of the country, the National Party must gain electoral advantages in the city. It is less obvious, but equally true, that holding the confidence of the city would deprive it, eventually, of its electoral advantages in the country.—Yours, etc., DAD. Rakaia, November 12, 1949.