The Northern Advocate Daily FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1936. MUTUAL ASSISTANCE

Northern Advocate, 7 February 1936, Page 4

The Northern Advocate Daily

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1936. MUTUAL ASSISTANCE

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper,

i It has been truly said that adversity makes strange bedfellows. Illustration of this fact has been provided by the trials and tribulations through which all sorts and conditions of people in New Zealand have gone during the past few years. There was a time when he who was well off scoffed at the idea of the mutual sharing of the good things, and the loss good things, which came to individuals. The principle which conditioned Ids outlook on life

was ‘‘Every man for himself and the de’il take the hindmost.” That was all very well when the advocate of this principle sat in the sunshine, and the world went very well with him. But. when the wind blew and the rain descended and heat upon -his house, a different story was told. There was a call for State assistance lest the house, if fortunately it stood, partly on rock, and not entirely upon the sand, should lie carried away. The individualist became an ardent collectivist; adversity brought him and those with whom he had hitherto disagreed into a common bed. We refer, of course, to the assistance which the State has given to sufferers by earthquake, by flood and by storm, and to the steps taken to assist the victims of the worldwide depression. There are those who imagine that the State, when making a grant for any purpose, draws its capital from some selffilling well, overlooking the fact dial each taxpayer is a contributor to the grant. It is noteworthy, however, that the State’s action in coming to tin' assistance of those who' have suffered through no fault of their own has not been widely questioned. It might have been, for a Southland taxpayer, for instance, might well ask why he should be required to share in the cost of restoring a railway-line or a road in Northland? The answer to the question is provided by pointing out that a Northland taxpayer might at any time be called upon to assist in restoring a service destroyed by a disaster in Southland. It is all summed up in the ideal for which mankind should be working: “Each for nil, and all for each.” Realisation of the ideal may still be only a “far off divine event,” but the experience of New Zealand during the past few years surely suggests that some progress is being made in the right direction.