FUSION OR- ?

Evening Star, Issue 20863, 5 August 1931, Page 12

FUSION OR- ?

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —Your leaders on the above are very amusing when ono considers the appalling mess both Reform and United have made of the finances of New Zealand. One can hardly associate with common sense your attitude in asking that the Now Zealand electors be asked to endorse at next election tho policy of party job-hunting and spoils to tho victors that tho past two Governments have enunciated. Do you seriously suggest that tho Coates’ policy of control and tho United policy of destitution to tho worker be amalgamated and served to tho electors as a political party hash, and expect that tho elector will swallow it and bo satisfied? Optimism, truly 1 What has New Zealand to thank tlm Reform Government for? Everything that was going to bring grist to tho wealthy, wlmther landowner or commercial men; control of markets, control of prices, monopolies, and reduction of wages to a bare existence. Are tho electors going to forget tho farcical Butter Control Board which tried to control the market of tho world (London) from a place which is only like a fly mark on tho map? Are they going to forgot the slump in butter caused by the Control Board and tho market it made for Soviet butter in London, while our farmers wore starving for finance? Will they forget tho holy mess at Arapuni, the Railway Board and tho exorbitant salary paid to the railway manager of the hoard, and tho relief wages of 9s per day for the worker? Are they going to forget tho railway policy of’'the Coates Gov-

ernment and tho huge workshops, commonly known as “Coates’s Meccano ”? Are they forgetting the borrowed millions which are hanging round the neck of the taxpayer to-day like a millstone? And are they forgetting tho emigration of CO,OOO immigrants, cheap labour for tho big man, and transferring tho unemployment chaos from Britain to New Zealand—Mr Coates’s “ Business in Politics”? And you seriously ask that the supporters of those and many other political foolishnesses fuse with tho present United Party and expect the electors to endorse such candidates. Truly the electors do very funny things, bub they are hardly “ non compos mentis.” Now wo have thb United Party, elected on a policy of impossibility, tho promised £70,000,000, with the backing of a certain religious sect and brewers’ interests. What has it done for New Zealand? While one must commiserate with the United Party on its having to carry the baby left by tho Reform Government, one cannot say that it has given any pearls of statesmanship to the electors. In the early stages Government jobs were packed to tho utmost, until, for financial reasons and pressure from tho big man, tho order was dismissals wherever possible. Everywhere whore money was needed it was passed on to the worker. Wage reduction of 10 per cent, was imposed, and no graduation, although tho 10 per cent, from tho worker’s wages put him on the starvation wage, tho man with £SOO a year was levied the same 10 percent. The man with £SOO a year had still £4OO odd to live on, while the worker with £2OO was reduced to £IBO. And this from a Government whose policy was to place tho burden of taxation on those most able to bear it Again, tho farce of unemployed being used in non-reproduction works and hundreds of thousands spent in useless works, whilst tho secondary lands are going back to weeds. And, lastly, the Budget. Luxuries which arc associated with American trusts not taxed, whilst necessaries have taxation raised. Filins and petrol, American trust products, no increase in tax: sugar and tea, increase in tax. Can one ho blamed for flunking that the American trusts’ tentacles are reaching even into our Parliament? And tho endorsement by Mr Forbes of the backing given by the liquor interests to tho United Party, when he apologised to those interests by stating that “ the tax on beer was introduced as a last resort.” And these are the two parties that you have tho temerity to ask tho electors to endorse as fusion. First Liberals, then Nationalists, then United, and now fusion. Your term is only half right. Confusion would ho a better name. No, sir. Wo have had Reform and United and tho country has gone from had to worse. Could Labour make a bigger mess? I doubt it. At any rate, tbo workers would not be any worse off, and they are the majority. “ Fusion or —?” I think tho electors this time will try tho “ Or.” —I am, etc., T.M. August 4. [Without distinguishing the true points from tho extravagances of our correspondent’s tirade, the answer to it is that this country is till -tho envy of Australia, with its Labour Government. —Ed. E.S.]