The Gisborne Times WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER. 18, 1933 IS THE .GOVERNMENT IN TOUCH WITH PUBLIC OPINION?

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 12078, 18 October 1933, Page 4

The Gisborne Times WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER. 18, 1933 IS THE .GOVERNMENT IN TOUCH WITH PUBLIC OPINION?

It is interesting to note that a large number, of farmers’ organisations are ; to-day busily engaged, passing resolutions congratulating tlie Government upon having raised the exchange rate' and trusting that it will not ho reduced. On his part, Mr. Forbes, however, cannot feel very happy over the matter. "What will not ho pleasing to him is that no other section of the people is follow ing the lead of the .farmers, although as it so happens, high exchange also favours local .manufacturers who do not require to import raw materials in large quantities. What the Government does not appear to appreciate is that the hulk of the business people and the workers are strongly opposed to high exchange because it favours the producers most largely at the expense of the other classes. It cannot, of course be blind to the faqt.that the issue has,brought about a slight measure-of disruption in its own ranks, which should amount to a condition of things far from satisfactory in the Prime Minister’s eyes. Opponents of the Government will have it that it was the raising of the exchange rate that gave Labour

such an overwhelming majority at the by-election for the Lyttelton seat.. If th& Ciovarnrnentr should ..pitt, up a candidate Lon the Builer -Beat, and iL Labour should retain, it by • an increased majority, .critics, of tlie Government will, of course again advance the plea, that high exchange, must be blamed for the result. There a.re, however, very many people who will not agree with the contention to which reference is being made. AVh a t they say—and witli much ground for support—is that opposition, to the Government has become intensified because the Government h«s not done nearly as much for the other sections of the people as it has done for the producers. It is widely known that many farmers have been assisted. —apart from the benefits which they have derived from the higher exchange —to an unfair extent in that they have also had their properties improved with the help of unemployed workers. The o’dy way in which the Government might regain a lot of support which it has lost would ho to bud some means of affording the business people and the workers .relief on a scale comparable to that which it has granted the producers. If it does not make radical adjustments in that direction Before another general election comes round, there can ho, nothing more certain than that ,it will he ejected from office —neck and crop. Nof at all helpful to the Government is the fact that the farmers’ organisations make no appeal n n behalf of any other station of the people hut themselves. Surel.v, they should agree that other sections have boon, just as hard hit hv the depression as they have been? If the Government is relying upon the producers to return them t 0 power at the next general election, it will find that it is leanin upon a section of the electors which is, numerically, far too weak to bring it success. Nobody should begrudge the producers a reasonable measure of relief, but that should not be. given to the exclusion of, and at the expense of, other sections which are suffering just ns severely. The Government, it seems, is out of touch with public opinion on tbe matter and it need not occasion surprise it the hostile criticism which developed at the Anglican Synod at Auckland should prove but the forerunner of a widespread movement on the part of church and social bodies to awaken “the powers that he” to a full sense of their political responsibilities.