SATURDAY, December 29, 1934. Grey River Argus WESTLAND, PAST AND PRESENT.

Grey River Argus, 29 December 1934, Page 4

SATURDAY, December 29, 1934. Grey River Argus WESTLAND, PAST AND PRESENT.

The instinct which keeps a community in mind of its own history is a worthy as well as a helpful one. Nowhere is it more so than in countries that are comparatively young. The Jubilee celebrations at Hokitika, while not on such a scale as those on the eve of the Great War, have afforded an opportunity once again to recall from what difficult material the founders of the West Coast wrought a successful settlement. In these days of difficulty, arising from post-war economic upheavals, the example of the pioneers is one to be kept in sight, and, in addition, their tradition is most worthy of being enlivened and perpetuated. It has given W'est Coasters a lasting distine tion in the Dominion as people of a friendly, helpful and hopeful type, and such characteristics

be cultivated from | ■ l- . for their survival as are customs, ami historians say they are traceable down the centuries. At the Hokitika gathering of pioneers this week, there natuarally were references, among others,’to the statesman whom West Coasters rank _ as their greatest pioneer. Richard

John Seddon, and it was not an inappropriate contrast that was drawn between him and-present day Cabinet Ministers none of whom could spare a day to honour the occasion. What, however, is more significant .is Hie fact that a Coalitionist city newspaper should demur at the tribute there paid to Richard John Seddon. Mr I’. C. Webb, M.P., is being taken to task by “The Press” becauseJje stated that if the political 1 ;:n*t economic structure founded by Mr Seddon had been carried out fully it

would have meant that there would be no unemployed among . the descendants of the pioneers and that had the spirit of Mr Seddon found expression in the great liberal traditions of the past, there would not have been poverty to-day. History bears witness to the fact that when the regime identified with the name of Mr Seddon began, it had to face a set of conditions quite similar to those of to-day. It was a time when, so far as the working class were concerned, the only tlouiishing relief measures were those that took the form of soup kitchens. When, however, the political elements dominant in today’s administration took over control, the workers had reasonable wage standards and working conditions, which were fostered by a sympathetic industrial tribunal, and the burden of taxation was not pressing so unfairly on them as it is now doing. ! “The Press” cannot ignore this contrast, but would absolve the Coalition from any responsibility : for it whatever. Nobody would hold the Government entirely blameworthy, but its utter reversal of the humane order formerly established had largely increased unemployment. If the working people had not been deprived of I purchasing power so extensively as they have been, the demand ■ for commodities and services would long since have recovered to such an extent that only a frae- . tion. of the present total would [ have remained unemployed, while the dole would not be heard of at ‘ all. “The Press” says that “in the amelioration of unemployment the Government of the country is limited by the extent to which it can reasonably tax the employed to help the unemployed.” That sums up precisely the shortsightedness of those politicians who reversed the policy which was planned and in. augurated in the days of Mr Seddon. Their idea is to treat workers as a liability instead of as an 1 asset for the country, and to en--5 visage a recovery in terms only of taxation, instead of national development and industrial expansion. Mr Webb was well justified in drawing the comparison

which he made at Hokitika, and the surest proof ‘hat it is a telling comparison is the scant relish

which it has for a leading Coalition apologist. It may try and explain away the part played by the Government in perpetrating unemployment, but the result of 'that part is something that nobody would attempt to explain away.