Readers Write

Northern Advocate, 27 May 1938, Page 4

Readers Write

I note that in a recent editorial you deplore the fact that Labour is wooing (to use your own terms) the

WOOING THE FARMER.

farmer. Would you' be so kind as to write another edi-!

torial explaining to

your reader's that the promise by the Nationalists, of the payment of Colonel Closey’s compensated price of 1/5, was not wooing the farmer*, scheme, which is now in the vicinity They started this little game. If a guaranteed price of 1/2 (approx.) scares you on behalf of the taxpayer, how does the payment of 1/5 (compensated price) affect you about under Nationalist finance canseeing that any deficit brought not remain a deficit upon the books of the Reseiwe Bank, as at present, but must be equated by means of taxation?

If this is incorrect. I, for one, would welcome your cori'ection. It is useless talking of lower costs meriting a lower price, seeing that Mr Hamilton says wages will not be reduced and tariffs not reduced “REFORM.”

One of the questions discussed by the Road Safety Council this week was pillion-riding. This council

SAFETY FOR THE MOTOR CYCLIST.

is tackling the problem of road accidents with

very commendable energy, and there will be general approval of the important principle laid down by Mr. Semple when he stated that the basis of road safety is safe reading. With the development of high speed transport, roads developed in the horse and buggy days, along the line of least resistance, have become more and more unsuitable for modern traffic, and there have been many fatal accidents attributable more to blind corners and dangerous intersections than to any human factor.

But when it comes to prohibiting pillion-riding, as was proposed, the council is on delicate ground, and it evidently recognises this fact, for it has decided to postpone any action. Pillion-riding, I think it can be fairly said, is not dangerous provided the motorcyclist uses reasonable care, and does not travel at excessive speed. Car owners are apt to despise the motorcyclist and ignore his rights, but it must be remembered that motorcycles provide cheap transport for many young men who cannot afford a car, and many a happy couple, who drive in a motor car today, look back with sentimental attachment to the happy, carefree days of youth when the pillion seat of a “motorbike was the magic carpet of romance. “MOTORCYCLIST.”

I am wondering whether the announcement by Mr. Savage that the Government will give to the producers the whole of

GUARANTEED PRICE.

the proceeds of the sale of butter and

cheese will not bring out some of the correspondents who have condemned and approved the guaranteed price in your columns.

Methinks both parties are in an awkward predicament, particularly those who first said a guaranteed price was entirely wrong, and then supported proposals which would give the farmer a minimum guarantee and allow .him to collect all that was received over and above the guarantee.

The farmer, it seems to me, has the Labour Party and the National Party by the wool.

Which of them will give most in order to secure the farmer’s relaxation of his hold?

I am awaiting with interest the return of your correspondents, who seemed to have exhausted their arguments, but who will probably feel revived again today.—“EX-FARMER.

Mr Brake has set the ball rolling for what all of us hope will result in ia rigid enforcement /of the law against juvenile

DRINKING BY JUVENILES.

drinking. Without wishing to be in

any way narrowminded or parochial—we in the North are often accused of being this I feel that the time Was come when we must face up to this most vital issue of the day. Irresponsibility is the emblem of modernity, and with it goes a superabundance of immoderate drinking habits.

Readers m'ay say that they have heard too many times before the perpetual harping against drink, and smoking, and of how these will make the youthful delinquent become stunted and ill-built, but I am not going to repeat all that now.

No athlete can hope to maintain a degree of superiority if he lets his system become congealed with poisonous fluids; nor dan the average individual who does not excel, but merely plays for the fun and the fitness of the game, except to gain any advantage from sport while he creates counter-disadvantages /over the bar. All moral principles aside, the fact is that youth cannot keep fit and drink intoxicants at the same time. —“YOUTH.”