The Grey River Argus MONDAY, June 7, 1943. SECURITY FOR SERVICEMEN.

Grey River Argus, 7 June 1943, Page 4

The Grey River Argus MONDAY, June 7, 1943. SECURITY FOR SERVICEMEN.

A feature of the Budget was the provision substantially to increase allowances for both the disabled ex servicemen and the, dependents of deceased servicemen. This is quite in line with, the needs of the situation, especi-J aUy when there most probably will, be an inflationary hang-over from the war. The greatest post-war demand must be for food, and our surplus of all land produce will be most likely earmarked for years for needy oversea countries, especially those whose productive capacity in primary necessities of. lift 1 is exceeded by their capacity in. secondary or manufacturing—not to say town —industries. Ou;/ own manufacturing capacity has in. many directions been so expanded in Avar time a.s to indicate, not merely a surplus, but a redical. reduction of production in peace time. We shall have largely to take payment for primary produce in the form of manufactured goods. By all accounts, all. countries of the world, after the war will, be influenced to raise their general health, and particularly their food standards. The ' post-war problems of those countries which the Avar has decimal-I cd Avill be very different to our post-Avar problems. Even if Ncay Zealand remains more a pastoral, than an agricultural country, the best must be made of that characteristic in the matter of rehabilitation. Toavu life may still appeal to many ex servicemen, but to many others, avlio have been meantime freed from the narroAv, cramping life of mechanised. industry and humdrum commercial callings—along with the nervous instability thereby bred in people,—nothing will appeal like a life out in the open. They Avill. be ready, given the opportunity, Io embrace the oldest, the healthiest ami tin; most natural form of human enterprise, which is that of maintaining themselves on the. land. Contact with the earth will have revealed to very many of them the regenerative and strengthening effects of working hard in hand with nature. If there is anything todfiA- making for the decline of industrialised nations .it is their large and growing divorce from

flic healing touch of mother earth. The congested, artificial environment of towns and cities, (inite as much as i.he fear of want, is one of the obstacles io social security against which this country must be increasingly on its guard. A Ministerial assurance was last week given in Parliament that ex servicemen will not be “directed” on their return into industrial channels against their will, but will be, allowed to choose their own occupation. It is unlikely that the Doni, inion can afford again, to go in for .such policy of reading and other public works relative to transport as absorbed so many thousands

c-f men and so many millions of r money at the time of the last depression. Yet there may again he something of a depression, if 'not in primary, at least in sec[endary industry. I.L thus stanch' to reason that for the Rehabilitation Board and the Government the best investment after the war ['must be expenditure that will inI crease markedly the. proportion |of our pouulation able to live a | rural life off the land itself. A istraw in the wind was a letter published last week from a local soldier serving in Palestine who displays deep interest in the cooperative form of farming there being successfully developed by Jewish people who have in many cases migrated from the urbanised and mechanised conditions {of countries where capitalistic in•dustrialism has passed its zenith land is now in a stage of decline, lit is conceivable that'the war will hasten that decline. It thercJforc appears a timely proposition for the Government to explore tlie possibilities of establishing ex ’servicemen in co-operative rural. communities, where they can 'be sure of maintaining themselves and their families, where firsn things shall come first, and a local co-operative store could both purchase their own produce, and distribute it, and,‘at the same time, purchase co-operatively for them whatever they need from outside without being able themselves to qu'oduce it. Such schemes are already in existence on a small scale in Britain and in Canada, but it is desirable that here they should not be designed primarily to depend upon cities and towns, but should be in an adequate degree self supporting and self reliant. The idea might appear a. new departure involving risks, but what, economic enterprise is fj.ee from risks? Dairy farmers have demonstrated the utility of co-operation in manufacturing, and distribution, and to some extent also in the securing of supplies. They could not have done nearly as well otherwise. The idea can be carried a long way further. In a town, so far as cur limited experience yet teaches, the only scope to co-operation lias been that given in a store serving consumers mainly. One also serving producers regularly Las been mooted often enough, lint has yet to hieeome an accomplished fact. The State again will be investing much money in reliubilitat ion-—it is now ready to lay out more millions on houses, the great majority, however, in areas more or less urban ised already-—and this money ought to be laid out with an eye to the best, the oldest, and surest form of social security, whereby those secured make. themselves secure by their own labour on their own property . Unless on the land, the great majority must liely on the property of somebody else until, such time as they can rely only on what the State can afford in a purely financial way Such token wealth is, however no true substitute in the final analysis for the real wealth derival le from the land.