UNEMPLOYMENT

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 304, 17 September 1921, Page 3

UNEMPLOYMENT

Sir, —On reading “Farmer’s” letter in Ths Dominion or September 13, 1 was at first unable to determine whether it had been written in order to provoke someone or in order to take the poor chap’s mind off the third test. We should all be thankful that the “political wiseacres and public mon" have no time to listen to his powerful suggestions; otherwise the Lord knows where •we’d all be. I wonder why "Farmer” and you, too, Mr. Editor, are so greatly concerned over those in the employ of the State. The minimum wage for an adult in the Public Service is 15e. per day. Does “Farmer" honestly think a man with a family to keep could suffer * "cut" of 50. in his daily wage? In eomo instances (not generally, I am glad to know) the farmer is feeling a bit of « pinch just now, but let mo tell your correspondent, and you too, Mr. Editor, that ths bulk of the people in this country, these who perform the so-called menial tasks in the community, feel the finch all the time. A day or two ago attended a stock sale here. Outside the ealoyards I counted fifty-nine motor-cars. These cars belonged, of course, to the. State employees, not the farmers! J valued each car at about £5OO. Do you know that the prioo of one car has to keep the average State employee and hia family for two years? Then "Farmer" goes on to suggest to the "political wiseacres” that them should be no •concessions in goods. Is agricultural lime still carried free over the railways for 100 miles, Mr. Editor? I presume agricultural lime is used solely by the State employee for growing cabbages in hia little garden plot. Anyone who thinks at all knows that the farming community is the backbone of our Dominion, but “Farmer" should loam where to vent hie wrath. If he thought at all he would h;|ve come to the conclusion that it isn’t the poor State employee who is to blame, but that the present position ia largely his own fault in allowing the speculator to inflate our land values. I often notice large numbers of land agents and- stock dealers riding around in motor-cars. Are they friends of "Farmer" or are they State employees, too?—I am, etc. AJAX. ["Ajax" appears to labour under tho misapprehension that we necessarily endorse tho views of our correspondents.]