GOVERNMENT IN NEW ZEALAND

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 12 April 1934, Page 7

GOVERNMENT IN NEW ZEALAND

(To the Editor) Sir, —I have now been in New Zealand for 5 years and have done my best to study New 1 Zealand politics. During that time we have had the Re! form or reactionary party in power, the party which generally advances backward. I know we are supposed to have a Coalition Party in power at present but that appears to me to mean that the Reform Party have persuaded another wing of the political party to join them for the time being and become also reactionary. lam not a Labourite aud have never voted Labour in my life and am past middle age, but I admire the New Zealand Labour Party for not also joining them but standing out for tile' benefit of New Zealanders. They have the courage of their convictions. From my experience of New Zealand I should say it was about the finest country in the whole world, having a beautiful climate and more natural advantages than any other country I know. Had all these advantages been used New Zealand would have been more or less of a paradise but now i think we- must all admit that the Maori in the past made better use. of ; t than we are doing. The canker appears to have started when New Zealand took on farming and exporting produce. Everything else was made subservient to the farmer and therefore New Zealand became lop-sided. Even Parliament became infested -with farmers. Had the farmer been broadminded and bad a wider view this would not have been so bad but farmers are noted for not being a.ble to see beyond a cow’s tails and their own pockets. They have by their colossal selfishness bought about the fall of New Zealand and 1 do not envy the party which has to follow them and put New Zealand in its proper position. I have milked .cows myself in -.New Zealand. The farmer hero lias been so nursed and spoonfed that he is helpless and spineless. At the present time New Zealand butter in London is j2s per cvt. after beiug taken from New Zealand to England, lhis means that New Zeeland butter 'S worth somewhere about 6,',d per lb fresh from the factory in c,v Zealand. Last week I went to" a etc: a in Motueka and was charged Is Id per lb. Now, I ask. any thinking man v.nat lie calls that. I. myself should be inclined to use a very strong adjective against, the farming or reactionary party. Tory or Reform or whatever they arc. No doubtfarmers will again vote reactionary but let thinking people see they are the only ones. May thinking people study this and record their decision at the ballot box. We all want to see New Zealand in the position its natural advantages meant it to be —at the ton of the tree, and a shining example to other countries. Put broad-minded men in Parliament, not men who cannot see over a cow’s back. The farmer was not meant for a political! but a cow-milker —1 am, etc., THINKER. Tasman, 9th April.