NATIONAL EFFICIENCY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20800, 20 August 1929, Page 10

NATIONAL EFFICIENCY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib,—A leading .article in Saturday’s issue of your valued paper is very illuminating from an educational standpoint. You say that another arm is being made use of in the silent 1 war—the weapon of national efficiency. The war, is, no doubt, an economic one in Europe and it applies to all the world. I submit that real educational efficiency includes the highest moral tone in its embodiment. It is my experience and my family’s experience, and I think, the general experience of the working man’s family that national efficiency is of secondary consideration in New Zealand. The modern working man’s family is harassed by the struggle to exist, not live. The leisured, money class runs this country on a wits basis. Instead of the ■ potentialities of the people being turned into efficient channels, with' a hope of better times in store, the workers are worried by a sense of insecurity. Any form of manual labour is taipo. "Get a certificate for an easy job ” is the rule./ Toadyism is worshipped. “ Buy in the cheap market and sell in the dear ” is the rule of commercial life. The moral side is not looked for. Private profit before communal service, is the rule; everybody using wits or guile for selfish ends in the financial world. The sole study of captains of industry is, how little can the working man’s family exist on? The working man, up against it, wonders how it is all going to end. Honesty is the best of policy. It is time we had a little bit of it from the ruling classes. The unemployed could be absorbed in six months from now if we got honest service from the heads of,the financial, industrial, legal and political bodies, and they could still live on the fat of the land. But that would be educational efficiency in the making, which we are not likely to get in New Zealand. —I am, etc., C. W. R. Dixott. Palmerston, August 19.