NEW ZEALAND’S HANDICAP.

Grey River Argus, 28 April 1932, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND’S HANDICAP.

(To the Editor). Sir, —I feel tempted to write amt try to explain what I consider to be the fundamental cause of the crisis we are passing through at the present juncture. It will probably be a long epistle, but it will contain, as far as possible from me, an explanation of the present position. One hears a lot of talk on all sides and different ideas advanced. Some blame the Government, others say it is the people’s own fault. Well, Mr Editor, we will just cast, aside all these ideas, go right into the pros and cons, and get to the I ottom of the trouble as far as we can. First, and foremost, I venture to remark that vested interests are to-day one of the greatest points we have to consider. Secondly, we have not got the brains in Parliament to solve the problem; hence the reason why, when ever a knotty problem crops up, our worthy heads immediately set up a commission, and after a lot of waste ol time, talk, and money, attain nothing in the end, and often leave out the most important points. Thirdly, and w hat I consider to be the most absurd point of the lot, is the stopping of all public works, and, through that, the causing of unemployment, and the taking away from the masses of the power of spending. This, Mr Editor, is, in its train, causing starvation, to which this country at least, should never have had to acknowledge. I will give my reasons for my last statement. Wo have only to go across the ocean and travel from one end of London to the other and we will see big placards with large words written on them: “Come to New Zealand— the Golden South.” “Plenty of Work and Good Wages.” The result of the picture is only too apparent!

Fourthly, we have our leaders attacking on all points of the compass, making more 5 and 10 per cent cuts, and even striking a blow at the defenceless widows’ pension, leave alone the others. I would here like to ask our worthy Parliamentarians: If they started to build a house and stopped the building half way, would they expect to get a tenent to come in and pay rent for that house? I should think the would-be tenant would ask them to finish building the house first and make it worth paying a rent for. Likewise, if the Government carried on and finished some of the alreadystarted works and put others into hand and created employment, they would have something at the end of the time as an asset, and at the same time help to put an end to the knotty problem of unemployment. I contend that the amount of money that has been gathered together and absolutely wasted, if put to a proper use, and if all public works had been carried on in the usual way as they most certainly could have been, thereby giving people the spend ing power, then what seems to stick in the Government’s gills at the present day, tho matter of balancing the budget, would have disappeared, and things would have righted themselves as time went on. I do not hold the Government responsible for the present position altogether. To go right into decimals, as I stated at first, our present Government has got to do as it is told by vested interests, or else no more money from them will be forthcoming. Tho public may or may not know that vested interests have issued an order to the effect that al! wages must be cut, irrespective of persons, and not to stop at that, but to cut out all they possibly can. Don’t forget, we have the right class of men at the head of affairs to carry that order into effect. The worker has to take a back scat, because he is beginning to get to know too much. Hence the huge cut in our educational system. Vested interests say they are not getting the dividends that they used to, and therefore .they cannot employ so many men or women. Tho reason is quite apparent to any thinking person. The argument that is held out is too thin to bear any weight. The golden 1 calf worship is just as strong to-day as it was in the days of old. The investor if he cannot get his big dividend, says “cut work out!” instead of going the other way about, and creating work, setting the wheels of industry going as usual, and thereby giving the masses the spending power again, which would mean that even if the worker had to get less for his labour, as is in evidence to-day, he would have it to spend, and thus put an en,d to this, utterly absurd system which is in vogue, and which is a<

standing disgrace to a little country like this. —I am, etc., L. H. WITHERINGTON.