CLASS LEGISLATION.

Grey River Argus, 5 October 1934, Page 10

CLASS LEGISLATION.

(To the Editor). Sir, —Interest is baaed on the value of gold. Fixed deposit in bank is interest bearing, while free deposit is non-interest bearing. Free deposit is the foundation of our banking system f< r it allows the banks the privilege of using i hat value without paying any value tor the use of it. When our banks and 'the Government started to juggle with our currency they deflated it externally and inflated it internally. The condition of New Zealand to-day is worse *than when the depression started; the interest charges are greater on account of our depreciated currency. for if we are trading with any country that is on the gold standard, our currency is not worth half ii*.s value. Our indebtedness is greater and our taxation is greater, and in the face of those conditions the Government has given a rise of five per cent, to their own salaries*. and the civil service, which means more taxation. It is what the Editor of the “Bulletin” calls buying votes by offering certain classes privilege to vote for them. Our civil service vote is a large one, and both Ithe Labour Party and the Government are catering for that vote. The men that are in steady employment have not felt the depression f r it has only limited their splendid power but the men that were thrown out of work have borne the brunt of t.he depression and have been denied the necessaries of existence, through no fault of their own. and if a rise in wage* was justified, it belongs to them. An increase in wages does not increase the purchasing power of the people; it only Itakes from one class to give to the other classes. Nature has laid down our economic law and you

cannot juggle with it. An increase to one is a, decrease to the other, and it affects all commodities. In 1880 our lowest wage 'in ithe civil service was to the permanent way men. whose wage was a little over six shilling- a day. and to-day that wage has increased 100 per cent. Our legislators’ honorarium was £l5O, a nd the increase is over 200 per cent, and I do trf think there was a civil servant whose wage was any way near £lOOO, while to-day we have civil servants receiving from £3OOO to £5OOO an increase of from 300 to 400 per cent This table shows how out of a 1! proportion your high’v paid servant has increased and

whereas your lowest paid servant with double the wages to day is in no better position than what he was in 1880. The (troubles with New Zealand are her intereM charges, her indebtedness and system of taxation and class legislation. Her class legislation has made gold above the value of life, for if you have not the wherewithal to purchase the necessaries of life, you can slowly starve. The time is not far distant when the people will assert themselves and make life above the value of gold, a.s they have a right to work and not be denied a more equitable distribution of the goods they produce. Both our present Government and Labour leaders are opportunists, for they will promise ithe different classes all kinds of privileges if they will only put them on the Treasury Benches. This fhows how corrupt legislation and the onl v remedy the voter has is to do a way with class legislation and send men to Parliament to legislate on humanitarian grounds, for. as I said in a previous letter, the earth’s productivity is unlimited and there is work for everyone and plenty —oplv we want a more equitable distribution of the goods we produce. I am, etc. J. WARD, Ah aura.