The Hawera Star. FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1929. AN UNUSUAL VIEWPOINT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 16 August 1929, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1929. AN UNUSUAL VIEWPOINT.

Delivered every evening by 6 o’olook In Hawera iiauaia. Normanby. Okaiawa, Eltham. Mang&tokl, Kaponga. Alton. Hurleyville, P area. Waverley. Mokoia Whakamara, Obangal, Msremer*. Fraser Road, and Ararata.

Nothing more indicative of a liaick of sympathy between town ami country (has been uttered in high places than the criticism of New Zealand secondary industries made by Mr Rushworth (Bay of Islands) in the House this week. Mr Rushworth said .that he did not believe in inducing people to> buy New Zealand made goods. That statement was sufficiently startling, but his reason for it was even, more arresting. He contended that in view of the national deficit—he has fallen into the error of regarding that half-million deficit as an awful shadow hanging over the fair name of the Dominion—it would be more patriotic to urge people to buy imported goods, so that the revenue from .the customs duty might be increased! Mr RushwoTith, it will be remembered, was the sole representative of the Country Party returned to Parliament at last election; indeed, so faT as any place south of Auckland is concerned, he is the Country Party. After reading his speech there is no longer cause for wonder at the reluctance of the 'electors to take a Country Party seriously. In the view of the member for the Bay of Islands, New Zealand should be either an importing or an. exporting country, and as ho has arrived at the decision that the Dominion will never be wholly the latter, he believes

it 'should discard all foolish ideas about supporting local industry and get on with the serious business of exporting its primary produce. We have heard the banker and the merchant described as "parasites” before by ardent rural workers, but we have never seen such a thorough-going;, anti-town advocate as Mr Rush worth in any place, and least, of all did we expect to find ai member of Parliament talking in such a strain. The manner in which Mr Rushworth has arrived at his firm conclusion that the secondary industries are of no use to the country is rather original and. of interest if only to show that he has followed some line of reasoning instead of merely giving utterance to an ingrained prejudice. New Zealand could never be so self-contained as to be able

to consume her own produce, he said, 'because a population of ten to twelve millions would, be required to- consume even our present output. The average I annual increase in population was 27,000, so that 370 years -would have to elapse before the -population would have increased sufficiently to consume all the butter, cheese, lamb and beef (and boneless veal, too, -we -presume) that New Zealand produces. After stating what is in essence a fact—that we must look to our primary industries (for the foundation of our prosperity—Mr Bushworth blithely assumes that the employment question can be solved and the economic balance of the country maintained by merely -emptying all the j people out of the cities and towns- into I the country, where they will, presum-^

, ably, produce more aind ieven more of the primary products. He waved a-side an -int-erjec tor’s question regarding the unemployment problem by asserting that “that, was -another question,’’ a naive remark which was received with la.ught-er. Political -economists of Mr Rus-hworth’s order m-ay do -something towards- brightening up a dull session of Parliament, but we wonder if the -electors they represent enjoy the spectacle as much a-s the amused members of the House 1 The time is apparently ripe fo-r members of Parliament to make an inspection of s-ome of the Dominion’s industrial plants—and to visit some of the crowded working-men’s suburbs of our metropolitan centres.