CONFIDENCE AND SECURITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 96, 20 October 1937, Page 12

CONFIDENCE AND SECURITY

(To the Editor.) s Sir,—ln this little country, that was : once a land of opportunity, politics ■ should not be speculative but should ' be firmly anchored to fixed principles , as a bulwark against not only economic dangers but also social evils. When we say that two persons are l "talking politics" more oft<?n than not they are merely wrangling about some - petty party question. Furthermore a Niagara of words is not always polk , tics in a true sense, as many are . destined to reason wrongly; and others not to reason at all. It is not so long since a depression gripped this Dominion, but well may the question be asked, are we placing too much faith in the magic touch of Aladdin's lamp? According to statistics unless we increase our population this outpost of the Empire will ; become an abode for veterans, as . people will never be attracted to i settle here until the existing burden of taxation is reduced and freedom of enterprise restored. Past Governments have made mis- : takes in disregarding or ignoring the : great weight of public opinion. There is a tendency today of electors in the mass become single-track-minded with a somewhat narrow gauge. On the other hand thoughtful electors know only too well that, experiences of older countries furnish ample evidence to prove it is a mistake for any Government to believe it knows more about running industry and businessthan those who have served their life on the job in putting New Zealand on the map. "Distribution of wealth" is a good catch phrase but it is misleading to the unthinking. Wealth is not money, but tlje means of producing things that may be changed for money. To destroy, per medium of high taxation, these means, is not to distribute wealth, but to end it. Wealth is distributed in the process of its creation in wages and other payments. Take wealth from those capable of creating it and it ceases to exist and of course so do wages, etc. This is precisely what is already happening to certain industries in New Zealand today as the result of crushing taxation, rising costs combined with undue State interference that is undermining confidence and feeling - of individual security. . . The question of pensions is too i frequently used to appeal to sentiment, but pensions similar to other things have an economic aspect as well as a moral one. How many electors in this Dominion are conversant with the fact that the first Government in Australia to reduce pensions was a Labour Government? The unpleasant measure mentioned' was forced upon the Scullin Government under financial stress m 1931. Under the last Federal Budget, invalid, old age, and war service pensions are not only still further increased but the sales tax has been reduced and also income and land tax. The result is that industry unhampered by State interference and high taxation is economically sound and unemployment has been wiped out. As: State Socialism can never pave the way to Utopia in this little country surely we . have much to learn from across the Tasman. But as Carlyle contended "experience is an excellent schoolmaster." —I am, etc.. T. A. FRASER.