COMMUNITY PRAYER, NO. 3

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11226, 3 June 1922, Page 8

COMMUNITY PRAYER, NO. 3

Parliament will assemble soon, and the first question that should receive attention is the hardship and bufferings that thousands of our countrymen and millions of Europeans are enduring because of the economic ills ravishing all Christendom. It is surely impossible for our legislators to assemble and waste time with idle formalities and still more useless discussions of petty things for wretched partisan ends whale unemployed starve. Every member of Parliament who hiae a shred l of human kindness in his heart, a tiny spark of Christianity in his soul, and the lowest possible degree of reward for the welfare of fellowbeings in aistress, should solemnly consider that his first and paramount duty shall be the alley! cion of this distress. The Parliamentarian who can. enjoy food in the luxury of Bellamy’s and care naught for impoverished and bankrupt constituents, or for the starving millions of Christendom, is not a human being, but a callous, 6elfish creature, in human form, no better than an unconscious savage who is blinded to everything save Ms greedv appetite for the things his 6fomach devours. The Community must pray that our Statesmen use the gifts of intelligence, the sense and reason with which Almighty God has endowed them, to remove economics ills that are strangling industrial life everywhere, causing widespread unemployment and insolvency in this country and a holocaust of death from starvation in some parts of Christendom. This third prayer, coupled with the two -previous numbers, should appeal to every member of the New Zealand Legislature:

''Almighty God has endowed this world with abundant food resources for every created being, and also with unlimited supplies of requisites for clothing and housing every soul on earth. It is the failure of Parliaments, elected to govern, the production, distribution, and exchange of these primaiy means of life, that is causing want, misery, and starvation in this rich and bountiful world, by permitting financiers to monopolise the 'world’s medium of exchange, and by charging extortionate rates, restrict industry, causing ©conomio paralysis everywhere. A sovereign remedy for national and international usage must be adopted at once to save civilisation throughout all Christendom.” Via the media, of this scheme of Cooperative Banking, viz.: — (1) Proprietary to consist of the Government, the holders of fixed deposits, and the depositors of money in current accounts. ... (2) Directorate to consist of nine members, three to be elected by each of the above proprietary interests. (3) Profits, after payment of Government tax on notes issued and interest upon fixed deposits, the snrplus to be annuallv divided among free depositors on the 'basis of average credit of each current account. <4) National legal tender notes to be issued: within New Zealand on the security of land and industrial assets. (5) International credits to be established on the security of expOTts handled by this bank for sale beyond New Zealand. (6) Provisional directors to be nominated by the Government, and the maximum rate for any advance to be 5 per cent. (7) Preference to be given to the producers of food on the land. 'Rublialied by Arrangement..)