Virtue seen in smallness

Press, 21 November 1978, Page 4

Virtue seen in smallness

Small is beautiful and flexible, according to Mr D. R. Offwood and Mrs P. A. Wilkinson, the Values candidates for the Fendalton and Yaldhurst electorates.

The two candidates held a combined public meeting at the St Mary’s Church hall in Waimaiari Road. Films entitled “The Other Way,” based on E. Schumacher’s book, “Small is Beautiful,” and “Intermediate Technology,” were shown to the 30 persons present.

Mr Offwood concentrated on inflation, saying that workers should employ money instead of money employing workers. He emphasised the need for industries to use more renewable resources and take apart monopolies. He asserted that electricity would never be a problem in New Zealand and if the main trunk railways were electrified they would use only 6 per dent of New Zealand's energy output. :

“The city is for people, not motor cars and trucks; t.o let the railways disintegrate is very shortsighted,” he said. Mrs Wilkinson said that at the moment New Zealand was not a democratic country, and gave examples from the three largest petitions in New r Zealand’s history. She said that more than 300,000 people had asked for repeal of the abortion laws; said “no” to nuclear power; and “no” to cutting down native forests. The Government, if it had listened, had not acted. “To achieve a Parliament which listens to the people we need people to change their attitudes towards the entrenched New Zealand two-party political systm,” she said. Both the candidates agreed that people would learn only by becoming personally involved in action and by taking individual responsibility for their actions.