NEW ZEALAND AND THE FUTURE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 114, 8 February 1937, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND AND THE FUTURE

The Trend of Legislation

WHITHER ARE WE BOUND?

(By

Jack Blunt.)

In the hurly-burly of life, in which every moment is sacred to those who have an appreciation of values, there must be periods in which men and women stop to think of what is to be the destiny of themselves, their families, and their country. The most precious heritage of every person is the ability and the right to think, and if these privileges are abrogated or rigidly curtailed, the end of civilisation is most surely in sight. It is a matter for profound satisfaction that, in spite of the daring and audacious attempts . of Labour officials and bureaucratic conferences to arrogate to organised bodies the right of thinking and acting for the multitude, there .is still to be found a considerable number of self-respecting, industrious, patriotic people among the proletariat, who refuse to surrender that individuality that is productive of initiative, and creates ambition, thrift, and national progress. It is to these self-respecting and thinking people that this article is specially addressed. Creating State Serfs. It cannot fail to have been impressed upon the most casual thinker that the greater portion of the legislation that has been rushed through the House during the last two sessions has been directed against existing institutions, and has plunged the country into an orgy of reckless finance. A close analysis of this legislation reveals the fact that underlying the structure of the Administration is a subtle attempt to bring the whole community, as well as primary and secondary industries, under the domination and control of a bureaucratic Government. Sugarcoated pills in the forin'of the restoration of wages cuts, an illusionary guaranteed price for dairy produce, and shorter working hours, have been handed out to a section of the people. But in it all, and throughout it all, is the supreme objective of Russianising the country and bringing the whole populace into a condition of State servitude. The first step in this direction was to secure control of the Reserve Bank and its resources. Thon came the seizure of the dairy produce immediately it was placed aboard the ship. Following this was compulsory unionism and the right to use union funds for political purposes. Finally, and as a last straw, there was thrust upon an unsuspecting people a measure which, through compulsory licensing, places every industrial or other business in the country at the mercy of the Socialist experimenters and dreamers. No legislation has ever been attempted in any part of the world in which the principles of Democracy have been so flagrantly flouted and violated as in this so-called “land of the free.” And yet a great body of the people are hesitant to move, and to give expression to their abhorrence of legislation that is going to shatter the foundations of our Democracy and to deprive generations that are to come of that individual freedom enjoyed in the past under British rule. Bought by Millions. Are the people of New Zealand content to drift to disaster, lulled into a false sense of security by a fictitious prosperity created by scattering millions of money as though it were water? Is the .populace groing to sell itself, body and soul, to a party that is showering largesse, in the form of millions, to serve its own mistaken and mischievous political ends? Ministers have declared openly that they are out to socialise the whole country. The Prime Minister has told a body of responsible citizens that his aim is to take from those who have, and to give to those who have not. Has he discussed in his own mind the morality of such a procedure? Has he considered what the logical sequence of such a policy might be? Does the worker himself approve such a policy? Would he regard with complacency the seizure of his Savings Bank deposit or other assets he may have accumulated by thrift, for the sake of giving to those who have squandered their money? A Vicious Law. The Government has already commenced its policy of expropriation in earnest. It has made commitments amounting to the staggering sum of over thirty millions in a year, and much of this money, which will be a permanent financial yoke around the necks of generations to come, will be absolutely wasted. It has also introduced a form of punitive taxation that may wreck the one industry upon which the financial stability of the Dominion depends. High wages and shorter hours are pushing up costs to the limit of the sky. Merchants may pass them on. Retailers may pass them on. In the final analysis they nil fall upon the shoulders of the people. The man on the land must carry a big share of the burden. If he be a pastoralist, he not only pays through the nose for every article he purehnses. but he sees the value of his produce reduced through the increased overhead charges imposed upon freezing companies and others who handle his produce. And a heartless Legislature swoops down upon him and inflicts n graduated land tax that robs him of a large portion of the remnant of his income. The dairy-farmer suffers in similar fashion. Is there wonder that there is uncase and a sense of insecurity in all quarters; including the ranks of organised labour itself?