Standard Of Living

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 232, 29 June 1939, Page 11

Standard Of Living

Sir, —Are there not two sides to the idea of a “high standard of living” wffiich our Government frequently proclaim they have given the people of New Zealand since their advent to power? There is the material side: lots to eat and drink, better clothing, less working hours, more leisure and time to sleep, but is there not also a moral side, i.e., to give a due return for these benefits, keeping of contracts and promises, fair play and to do to others as you would they should do unto you? Well, let us now analyse the material side and trace its results—better food? Yes, for a certain proportion of the people only—not for farmers. More to drink? Yes, as the thriving state of breweries and publichouses testify. More money to spend? Yes, in some cases, as the totalizators prove. More leisure? Yes, as the 46hour week gives to some, but not to the most important part of our population, the producers. Farmers have longer hours, more worry, and often have their wives and daughters working in the cowyard and bail. Less crime? No, not less juvenile crime. Better health of the community? No, not if we judge by the overcrowded state of our hospitals. More houses to live in? In a few cases, yes; in others, no, especially where farmers have been forced off their holdings.

Has this boasted high standard of living given better results in work? No, not if one is to judge by the results of the work on the waterfront, and the opinions of officers of visiting ships. Has it improved the coal output a man and stopped strikes? No. Has it improved the wisdom of our rulers in spending to such an extent that they have to curtail imports from the Mother Country, which has a lower standard of living (according ■ to our Government) and asking its i help? Are we proud of this? No. Do i we think it highly moral, do we think it right for a boy to gobble his own cake and then ask a poor boy for his? Has it raised New Zealand’s credit abroad or even at home? —I am, etc., ■ F.W. June 24.