THE RIGHT WAY TO GO TO WORK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 19 February 1931, Page 11

THE RIGHT WAY TO GO TO WORK

(To the Editor) Sir, —xt i s very pleasing indeed to see that some interest Ims been aroused. My last letter under the above heading seems to have attracted some attention and this is very gratifying. Until the people as a whole rise and take an intelligent interest in their own country we need look for little or no improvement, after all this is our country. It doesn’t belong to the Government or to any political party. The country belongs to the people and should be governed for the people's good and not mismanaged in such a way as to bring us to the edge of the abyss, the 'bottomless pit of despair, in the neighbourhood of which old England herself seems to have landed herselp by her weakness and her pandering* to the so-called “unemployed.” If a man is kept busy collecting his dole for himself and family you can’t say that he is exactly “unemployed.” He has proved by experience that this particular pastime is very much more profitable than “hard graft.” 1 am not concerned to place Mr Seddon’s expoits in their precise chronological order. His saving of the Bank of New Zealand was advanced as a specimen merely. The news of the impending disaster only reached him in the afternoon. The* ramifications of the bank penetrated into every nook and corner of the land. Seddon soon grasped that fact and he saw clearly that unless something was done and done speedily the land would lie laid bare and waste. Seddon was a man wlio “got tilings done.” Before the House rose in the advanced hours of the following morning legislation bad been passed that saved the bank, and the saving of the bank meant tlie salvation of New Zealand. Seddon bad many bitter political enemies. No man lias ever had more opposition launched against him, but in spite of all he forged ahead and lie had the wisdom to apply the rising tide, of prosperity and the increasingly advancing prices ol our products to the solid advancement of the land. In the main these were not squandered; they were used wisely for the country’s good. Every year showed a larger budget surplus. Just recently we have had several very satisfactory and full years. What’s become of tile money? Has the Government ever set us an example of prudence or thrift? Publicly and privately tlie surplus money lias been squandered and tlie Government lias set us an example of reckless extravagance. Parliament itself has gone much further still. In its unscrupulous greed for personal gain each of tlie members of tlie Lower House seized a solid hundred pounds and less than six of tlieir number have bad the good grace to restore that illgotten gain. Now that tlie proceeds of these full years have all been devoured —“the years that the locust hath eaten”—our leaders have nothing better to suggest to the workers of this country than that they (the workers) should engage in an undignified scramble for crusts.

One correspondent thinks that luxuries should be taxed. Most certainly they should he taxed. Wherever there are* signs of wealth being squandered, that is the very quarter that should engage the close attention of tlie Government. and the tax gatherer. For insance if I can afford to flaunt myself in a showy motor ear all over the town and countryside this should be fair inference and indication that I can afford to contribute something to the revenue. That. I may have paid only a beggarly £5 deposit on that car should carry no weight at all with the tax collector. The contents of hotel bars and spirit stores should be made to yield a goodisli bit more in revenue than they yield at present. This particular cow lias by no means been milked dry. The man wlio really feels that lie needs whisky will quite easily find the money to pay for it even if the price went up to 60s a bottle. I am etc.,

OBSERVER Nelson, 19th February.