LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24540, 24 March 1943, Page 2

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Savage Memorial gj r> —it is gratifying to note that the acute petrol and tyre shortage will not preclude the transport of many thousands of age pensioners, Ministers of the Crown, choirs, bands, and all other sections of the public who are invited to be present next Sunday afternoon at one of the ever-recurring ceremonies around the resting-place of the late Mr. M. J. Savage. No doubt the next pre-election step will be the establishment of a daily bus service to Bastion Point. Immobile. Tram Service Sir, —As a city worker living on Manukau Road, who must be in town by 9 o'clock. 1 find it exasperating to be left standing every morning at the stop between 8.30 and 8.45, while successive trams loaded with Epsom Grammar School girls pass by without stopping It seems a pity that trams intended to take passengers all the way to town should be monopolised by n section who are going only a small part of the whole journey, and that these trams should then continue on their way from the school to town practically empty. Surely special trams should bo put on which would run from Onehunga as far as the school only, so as to enable the city workers to utilise the ordinary trams to town? 9 O'clock er. The Political Future Sir, —I agree very heartily with Mr. J. Victor Macky's suggestion that members of Parliament should be more adequately remunerated for the service they do, or should, render, and for the sacrifices they must, of necessity, make in so doing. I do not, for one moment, suggest that payment and good service are inseparable conditions. We all know that a tremendous amount of most valuable service is rendered day after day on a purely honorary basis. Service for the State is unquestionably one of the finest find highest types of service; but that is no reason for suggesting, that we should expect to get it for nothing or for less than a reasonable compensation. Moreover, service for the State is, after all, no more than service for the people, and there seems to be no good reason for treating a member of Parliament in a way that differs materially from the treatment given to a professional or business man or a manual worker. Most men and women have others who depend upon them and for whose standard of living they are primarily responsible. If any of them have the qualifications and the desire for public service, we—the beneficiaries —will enlarge enormously our field of selection if we try to remove the barriers which prevent those people from giving the service which so many of them are well able to o;ive R. M. Ar.fiik. Wool Prices and Stabilisation Sir, —The Hon. ,T. G. Barclay, speaking to the Address-in-lleply was misleading on the above matters. Mr. Barclay quoted sterling prices for wool (less brokerage) over three war years and compared them with prices for two years prior to the war. He then argued that slieepfarmers had received a MG per cent increase in income since the outbreak of war; and would receive as the result of a 14 per cent increase in wool price,' which he erroneously stated we are to receive this season, a total increase amounting to 50 per cent. Mr. Barclay has taken three war venrs and two pre-war years. 1 have checked up the past six years—three war and three pre-war; prices received less brokerage, in New Zealand currrncv for my clip are: —l 936-37, 14.25 d; 1937-38, 8.63 d; 1938-39, 8.45 d; average, 10.4 d. 1939-40, 11.25 d; 1940-41, ll.Sd; 194142, 11.5 d; average, ll.Sd. This gives an increase of 10 per cent since the outbreak of the war. At any meeting of farmers at which 1 have been present since 1939, any suggestion to ask the British Government for an increase in the price of wool lias been _ emphatically opposed by the majority of those •present. Recently the British Government generously decided to pay a 15 per cent increase for wool to cover increased costs in the sheep industry. The Government, in some mysterious manner, decided that those increased costs amount to 9 per cent. It would appear to me the decent thing to do would be to say to the British Government: "We appreciate your generosity; 9 per cent covers our increased costs, please retain the remaining 6 per cent." However, the Government is retaining a 5 per cent wool price increase for their general funds and 1 per cent for subsidies for local industry —British consumers' money subsidising industries in competition with British, industries. Gisborna* M. T. B. Hall. ;