The Inside Story

Northern Advocate, 29 July 1939, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Inside Story

by the “PRIVATE D

most interesting news this week

was the story that some kind hearted financiers in England had offered Hitler a mere thousand million pounds to put off the war for a few years. Naturally, this story was denied at once and the Private D heard from a reliable source that Mr Nash was very annoyed because he was not offered a similar sum. Just think what a thousand million would have meant for Mr Nash. He would have been able to come back to New Zealand and offer : pensions to everyoiie, established breweries, canned sardine factories, cigar works, glue foundries and fish and chip saloons, without a thought in the world whether they were uneconomic or not. As it was he got a mere nine million, which to a man like Nash' is less than a flash in the pan.

M R Nash’s name is linked with mil-

lions and, when'one thinks of the millions he has raised in' this country by various subtle means, the fact that he could only squeeze nine of the same from the financial houses of Great Britain is very disappointing. In New Zealand, where freezing workers earn £SOO a year, a million or two is nothing. However, the Private D, desiring to import various liquid goods, is thankful that he got anything at all, but on the other hand, if this means that the Private D will be able to pay his overseas debts (see the Private D’s column of a week or two ago) then he is definitely more disappointed still.

JJOWEVER, the New Zealander is a

hardy person and can stand any amount of buffeting. One has only to study the parliamentarian who goes to Wellington ahd talks for three weeks / or mox-e on one subject and shows no signs of wearing out. It is remarkable that 80 men, or rather 79 men and one woman, can talk to such great length. Perhaps the 79 men are just showing Mrs Stewart that when it comes to the point they can talk, as long as any woman yet born. Whep Mrs Stewart

AND THEN THERE WERE NINE MILLIONS

really gets going Parliament will probably dig m for the rest of the year. New Zealanders who enter Parliament go there well prepared at any rate. One has only to go to an average meeting and listen to the verbal spate which flows forth, to understand that county councils, farmers’ unions and such like provide wonderful training grounds for the legislators of the country.

only thing that die Private D

cannot understand is why talk at all? When it comes ;o the point, Cabinet draws up a bill, says it must go through and go through it does. The Private D supposes that members must appear to earn their four hundred, so they endeavour to get into the papers now and again just to show that they are well and truly representing their constituents. A few words on the Noxious Weeds Bill and the Bill Aiming at the Suppression of Woolly Aphis serve to remind voters that the honourable member is doing his stuff, and keeping the need for a new bridge over the creek at the back door well before the Government’s notice.

M R Chamberlain’s policy, as reported

earlier this week, was anything but a tonic to some people, but the Private D, being experienced in the ways of diplomacy, and having evaded a number of debt collectors by various means, is prepared to reserve his judgment and see what happens. The ways of diplomacy are very tangled and ten to one the Japanese will find out that perhaps the bargain was not so good as it looked on paper. The Private D’s wife states that bargains are never worth having and, judging by the hat she brought home from the last sale, there is something in this point of view. Therefore, those who do not like Chamberlain’s pills, which he adminsters every now and again, can take’ heart and hope that an agreement will bo found to have so many loop hopes that someone or other will hang himself in the loops.

people to-day are looking for

loop holes through which to escape the trials of life, but after signing half a dozen papers and giving some Government official the full history of Great Uncle Joseph and Grandma Eliza (at the moderate fee of 5/- plus Social Security tax) the majority, find it easier to sign the cheque and forward it to the Taxation Department. The Private D learns from his usual unimpeachably reliable sources that there is some dissension in the Government ranks over methods of finance, but he can assure the Government that that is nothing to the dissension which exists in the ranks of the rank and file over financial matters. In fact there is a serious split in the household finances. The Private D has pleaded with his wife that he be sent to England on a money raising trip, but somehow this has not met with a favourable reception. It’s strange how one has to be a member of the Government to be able to get those nice cruises Home.