Readers Write

Northern Advocate, 16 July 1938, Page 6

Readers Write

I draw the attention of your readers' to the following extract from “The. Standard” (the official newspaper of' the New Zealand Labour WHY? Party) published on April 28,' 1938; “The twenty-second 'an- i nual conference cf the New Zealand [ Labour Party was brought to a close ■ on Thursday evening with the sing-. ing of “The Red Flag” and “Auld | Lang Syne,” and resounding cheers. for Mr. Savage and his colleagues in ' Cabinet.” The Prime Minister, Mr. | Savage, was there in person. How ■ many of your x’eaders believe that the, omission of the National Anthem was unintentional? —G. W. BENNETT. The serious falling-off in killings of fat slock at the Farmers’ Freezing Company’s Moerewa works for the year ended 30/6/1938, as MOEREWA disclosed in your issue FREEZING of the 2nd inst., is most

WORKS, disquieting, and calls | for action on the part of the farming community in North-, land. The district, i.e., the Northland ] peninsula, has made rapid progress | from an agricultural point of view ■ during recent years, and that progress one would naturally expect to see reflected in increased killings at the farmers’ own works. Unfortunately, according to the figures produced, no such increase has materialised, but, on! the contrary, a serious decrease has' been suffered. Farmers should realise that the Farmers’ Freezing Company Ltd. is owned and operated by the farmers for the farmers, and, as such, is entitled to receive 100 per cent, support from them. Were it not for the operations of this company, there is little doubt but that killing and freezing charges would be considerably higher in the Auckland Province than they are today, and in this connection it is interesting to note that the company’s killing, freezing and bagging charges to f.o.b. are the lowest in the Dominion. Add to this the fact that profits made by the company are not used for the purpose of paying abnormally big dividend, but are applied to the reduction of charges in subsequent years, and we have a most excellent reason, if one be needed, why farmers should stand right behind their own company. Dairy companies throughout the province have recognised the value of the Auckland Farmers’ Freezing Company Ltd. to the farming community generally and to the dairying industry in particular. Farmers, follow the lead of your dairy companies and support your own freezing works wholeheartedly. When you sell fat stock in the paddock, sell to buyers who will have ft killed at the Farmers’ Freezing Company’s works. Bobby calf pools should kill their calves there; or, if selling on the railway trucks, stipulate that they be killed there. Northland farmers must support the Moerewa works in their own interests. —D. A. FINLAYSON (Maungaturoto),

A short time ago I read an article by Professor John Dewey, well known American philosopher and educationalist, tend could not SOCIALIST’S help contrasting his

OUTLOOK, remarks with those of Mr S. M. Falstein, which appeared in the “Northern Advocate” on Saturday as a criticism of an article that had been previously written by Mr H. C. Rishworlh. Professor Dewey claims that the dictatorship of a minority is compelled to use terrorism in order to crush opposition, and is compelled to make concessions to the non-Socialist outlook of the population in order to secure their support. His argument is that a minority cannot impose a social advance on an apathetic or hostile majority, for the reason that the minority dictatorship, in order to retain power, has to destroy freedom of speech, of writing, and of the press, which are the necessary conditions of orderly progress. The dictatorship has to preach the doctrine that the end justifies the means, and has to proclaim, as did Trotsky and Stalin, that Socialism can be achieved by brutal terrorism. One has not to read far into Professor Dewey’s statement to realise that

he thoroughly understands what he | commits to paper. Similarly, those who have studied the subject of Socialism must admit that the opinions expressed by Mr Rishworth are both sane and sound. If Mr Falstein had known more about his subject, he would not willingly have committed the error of stating that New Zealand had never been more prosperous than it is now under a Labour Government. Nor would he have stated that from his observance of Tory legislation he had found that their ultimate aim was to seek to enrich the few at the expense of the mass. Perhaps Mr Falstein will tell your readers what experience he has had under Tory legislation. Perhaps he will tell them how Australia fared under the Lang administration, and how successfully the late Ramsay Macdonald and his associates governed Britain before the Coalition.— “OBSERVER.”