"A SELF-CONTAINED COUNTRY"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21784, 25 October 1932, Page 8

"A SELF-CONTAINED COUNTRY"

TO THE EDITOR. Silt, —Your leading column of even date contains the statement that it is a fallacious notion that this country or any other country can live entirely unto itself. Everything depends upon one word "entirely." With continued reference to what other countries have done and are doing, we, procrastinating New Zealanders, are sinking deeper into the mire. New Zealand as a whole is only a business concern and anyone with specialised business wisdom knows that success is al-, ways within, not without. We are suffering to-day from the limitations of human nature. Do something now that the other fellow is not doing and net profit is always the result. But you must have an elastic mental attitude towards your job. You must do it yourself—decision, action, then more action. Is there. I ask you, one good reason why a smail shop with a strong will cannot make a larger net profit than a large business which is swamped with difficulties? Here we have the exact position of New Zealand to-day. The larger the country or business the greater its troubles. Troubles take command, and a full-time attention (24 hours per day) of shareholders, employer, etc., only leads to places undreamed of. They lose their mental balance; then everybody suffers; but nobody seems to be aware of it. The ship begins to sink, the captain is blind to the fact that a scientist, not a mariner, has invented' an instrument that will enable him to see through the fog. He notices a smaller ship steaming ahead under speed and technical conditions which are foreign to him. He sees it, —that is all. He hasn't time to analyse why ho is left in the fog. Let* this small ship be New Zealand. Let us be equipped with what science can freely offer. We can lead the way; our future depends upon what we do today, not upon what others have done in the past. We are not others; we are ourselves; and that's that. Now let us have a peep at America. Why cannot America be self-contained? If her 12,000,000 unemployed count as nothing, she cannot, but if they count as potential purchasers of the products she has produced, and can produce, she can be. But the new scientific method must be applied, viz., consumer credit. A writer in the Rotarian says:—*' Old ways of doing have failed. The first step towards solving problems of to-day is a vitalised understanding of human values. Rotary will have nothing to do with war legacies, of hate, greed of gold, or racial suspicions." Here, Sir, is food for thought. Why is such sound, advice by world thinkers ignored? The Minister of Lands, you write, disposes effectively and decisively of the argument that we can isolate ourselves. Of wool we consume 3 per cent., of butter 23 per cent., of cheese 6 per cent., of mutton 49 per cent., of lamb 7 per cent., of other meats 77 per cent. These are figures for the past. We have no guarantee that they will continue. As unemployment increases the real purchasing power of the Old Country continues to decrease. Here, further, is a point be overlooked. England has 2,500,000 men out of work and 5,000,000 acres of cultivable land out of employment. She pays £1,000,000 per day for food, the bulk of which can be raised at Home. .Don't forget what she did during the wm> There is a movement afoot in IPreland nf the present time, headed by Lord Beaverbrook and other leaders, who are alive to the fact that England is not making the best use of scientific farming. Lord Beaverbrook says: "Give us the chance and we will save this country £500,000,000 per year on foods produced by ourselves." The financier says: "If we don't buy from the dominions how can they pay the interest on money we have lent them?" Sir, the pauperisation of millions of helpless souls and the destruction of God's own gift, the soil, is a high price to pay for interest on loans, and to oppo.se Nature is very dangerous. Is not the position sinewhat similar iu this Dominion? Wc can only think iu terms of export, of past export. The basis of all business is customers' wants, and they begin right where we are. In my own case—live in family—two to three pounds of butter per week. I waut at least live pounds, but unfortunately through lack of purchasing power I am unable to secure this amouut. Think for a moment what the people of this Dominion do waut right now. You will find that their immediate wants could be supplied by our own producers and manufacturers; but no, export is the only thing we can think of. If our own markets are not worth studying from a human point of view—and all business transactions should be human —why press the farmer to produce more? Work seems to be a nightmare to a lot of us. In reality, it is not so much a matter of work. It is a matter of a more efficient and scientific means to distribute the product of work. We must either take a retrograde step, smash all machinery, prohibit science, and give people work by hand or go forward carry-