OUR DAILY BREAD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 136, 10 May 1945, Page 4

OUR DAILY BREAD.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —The familiar phrase "Give us this day our daily bread" is re-echoed universally, but in very few eases is any considerate thought given to obtaining the needfu'l climatic conditions for "our health and food production. When severe adverse conditions prevail we usually hunt for a scapegoat whereon to saddle the mischief wrought, thereby closing that avenue of desirable knowledge. The things which we abhor most, such as war, pestilence, and famine, cannot permanently be removed until we remove the cause which produces them. The time is surely coming when blissful ignorance will end in a painful awakening to the knowledge that Government subsidies are very poor recompense for the pain and remorse suffered for neglect of duty. To illustrate: A few years ago an enormous landslide occurred in the Esk Valley. It completely blocked the creek but otherwise did only minor damage, and not much notice was taken till, some two years later, the lake, which had been formed by the dam, and without adequate provision being made for its overflow, suddenly burst its banks, and within a few hours thousands of pounds damage was done by the sudden flooding of property. The judicious and timely expenditure of a few pounds would have sufficed to completely avert the disaster. . .

A greater disaster, in my opinion, threatens New Zealand. Our daily bread is being bartered for drugs which undermine 1(10 people's health and strength. Hospital accommodation, physical and mental, is being overtaxed, apparently for the benefit of doctors, druggists, and undertakers. More than 70 years ago I learned to avoid tobacco and, later, drugs and patent medicines before damage to health became irreparable. Today I still enjoy my dailv bread and strongly object to the Government's Social Security scheme taxing the Dominion to supply free drugs to the people's detriment, thereby wasting incalculable milliotiri of pounds. A few doctors ar c paid by the Government to keep tlicir patients healthy, but the great majority are paid for consultations re pains, real or imaginary, with the added incentive of repeating or changing the prescription next visit. How is _it possible, under such widespread delusions, for people to live out half their days, or becoming a burden on the Slate, by substituting drugs for daily bread ?—Yours, etc., C. 11. MASON.