“THU OTHER SIDE.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 194, 18 July 1939, Page 8

“THU OTHER SIDE.”

DIR NASH UNDER FTRE. “IS NEW ZEALAND REALLY A MODERN UTOPIA P’ “Is New Zelaand really a modern Utopia?” is the question asked in hold type across the top of a correspondence feature page in tlie Daily Sketch, a London journal, of June 20. It draws attention to a letter carrying tho signature “The Other Side.” The writer had apparently not been at all convinced by Mr Nash’s broadcast summary of conditions in Now Zealand a few evenings previous. In fact, he disagrees violently with the Dominion’s Minister of Finance. For example, he says, “Dlr Nash speaks only of tho wonderful prosperity of New Zealand. How can it prosper while the Government continues its ridiculous and extravagant policy, which is out of all proportion to what the country can afford?” “Listening to the broadcast the other niglit by the Finance Dlinister for New Zealand (DU Nash), and hearing that long list of figures strung together in defence of the Labour Government’s policy, no one would ever doubt that New Zealand was tlie most prosperous country in the world at the present time, a modern Utopia in which ‘everything in the garden was lovely,’ ” the letter reads. “No one would dream of the other side of the picture of which no hint was made. Of struggling farmers calling togethor meetings of protest in a vain effort to stave off the ruin that, is staring them in the face; of the low wool prices, of a fat lamb marketing that is rapidly falling, of high wages and high cost of living that is making it impossible for the farmer; of farms being sold up and taken over by the firms; of men and women wondering and fearing • what is, going to happen next and where the money is going to come from to r>av the extravagant publ’c works bill, the social services, and tho enormous increase in pensions.

“T noticed Mr Nash said that the primary cause of his visit to this country was to discuss defence measures. When he left New Zealand it wag understood by the people of New Zealand that the primary cause of his visit was to raise a loan to carry on public works. Did he feel that the magic word “defence measures” was more popular in this country at the moment and would giro him a more sympathetic hearing at the start of his visit, and the less attractive word “loan" could come later? “If the Labour Government continues its reckless spending on public works and social services, the Now Zealand farmer will have to l>o prepared to face the worst slump in the history of the country, signs of which are already making themselves apparent. Men employed in these public works camps are naid such high wages that it has forced wages ur> in every branch of agriculture and farmers can no longer afford to pay the wages and employ the labour that is necessary All in'iiative to work is being crushed and the youth of New Zealand encouraged in laziness and idleness. “Mr Nash speaks onlv of the wonderful prosperity of New Zealand. How can it, prosper while the Government continues its ridiculous and extravagant policy, which is out of all proportion to what the country can afford ?”