JOY RIDE

NZ Truth, Issue 1148, 1 December 1927, Page 6

JOY RIDE

Islands Trip For

Politicians The Government is issuing invitations to representative men to Join a party on a trip to Samoa and Niue Island on the new steamer Maiii Pomare. i THE taxpayer is expected by Gordon ■ Coates, on receipt of this news item, to manifest all the signs of intense satisfaction, even enthusiasm. Doubtless, m the Prime Minister's opinion, the only reason to account for the decided absence of any sound of hearty and prolonged cheers ia due merely to the average New Zealanders inherent aversion towards the display of demonstrative emotion. Coates may be right, but, according to all the rules of the game, the reason the taxpayer is not fairly capering with joy is due entirely to disgust over the prospect of being "stung" to the tune of a couple of thousand pounds m order to provide a pleasant holiday for a few politicians — probably also some of their dependents and their friends. This proposed trip <-f 23 days is not imperative, it is not even necessary. The thousands of unemployed m New Zealand for whom various local bodies are publicly collecting subscriptions have already a legitimate grievence against the Reform Government as being m a large measure the authors of their plight. Under the circumstances a political pleasure trip round the Islands savours very strongly of a contemptuous slap across the face of the unemployed. To the taxpayer it can be interpreted only as a gesture of political arrogance coming at a time when, m addition to the burden of increased taxation and economic depression, the taxpayer mis being asked to voluntarily tax himself by public subscriptions to unemployed funds.