LOTTERIES, USURY AND COAL CRISIS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 211, 24 August 1926, Page 3

LOTTERIES, USURY AND COAL CRISIS.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I do not wish to trespass on your valuable space but I would like to express my views upon lotteries, usury, and tho British coal crisis. Clergymen and the Hon. the Premier condemn lotteries. I fee! certain that either they do not know the real effect they have upon the community or they are working in the interests of the usurers upon whom I have not yet heard any complaints from the clergy or the legislature. The money put into a lottery is a gift, it hurts'no one and leaves little or no burden upon the community, a debt is paid and the community benefit, but if that money were raised by borrowing, the public would suffer through the interest and p-ofits upon such interest that has to be met, affecting the cost of living, creating idlers and putting burdens upon industrialists and the community. Lotteries are a link —crude no doubt—in the chain of economics, a first ray of sunshine through the clouds of usury which I hope will be supported rather than be suppressed. Britain’s debt a short time ago was £7,554,000,000. Her population is about 40.1100,000, and there is an annual interest of £8 12s per head. A miner with four children and his wife—six in family—would be responsible for the payment of £52 per annum, which with trade profits upon such interest amount to £7B per anum. The German national debt is £175.000,000 and tne population

70,000,000. A miner in Germany pays 2s 6d per head, so six in family pay 15s per year and with trade profits added amounts to 22s 6d, so that the German ' miner has an advantage over the British of £76 17s 6d for the years work. Hence the cheaper coal, and while the interest has to be paid so long will the people be compelled to pay high prices for their commodities, or buy from the Continent. Who then is to be blamed, the miner? No certainly not, but the system of usury which is nourished by our selfish cravings, and for which wo are responsible. We reap what we sow all the time.—l am, etc., G. BELL. Hastings, August 23rd., 1926.