THE VISION OF MR SAVAGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23511, 27 May 1938, Page 15

THE VISION OF MR SAVAGE

to rat; euitok Sir, —There is one thing I do admire in Labour supporters and that is their courage.. Instances are continually cropping up to prove how courageous they are. Just fancy the courage of “A Mere Woman ” asking the editor of the Daily Times to m sert her first foolish letter of praise of the Labour Party and her request for all women to vote for Labour six months hence. Her letter was inserted a few days before the city election at a time when the Daily Times stall must have been harassed and overworked in dealing with election matter. I quite understand how very important it was to “ A Mere Woman ” to let the public know that her children now wear pyjamas. Another instance of their courage occurred after Mr Savage’s speech in the Wellington Town Hall. The Daily Times, in a leading article, drew the attention of the public to several misstatements and false impressions Mr Savage had given in his speech. A Labour supporter was so annoyed that he wrote a long letter to the editor abusing him for exposing Mr Savage, and actually had the courage to ask the editor to publish the letter of abuse. Just one more instance of Labour courage although I could relate dozens! When the Canterbury farmers approached the Minister of Public Works, Mr Semple, with the object of getting a few thousand pounds for irrigation works to increase production, Semple’s answer was, “ Not a hope, not a hope.’’ The farmers last year produced £65,000,000 worth of wool, mutton. butter and cheese —£10.000,000 more than in the previous year—yet they were denied a little of the fruit of their toil to carry out useful productive work. Now that is courage for you and I nearly used a good old British word in describing it! The Labour Party is very thinskinned. It “ picks ” at the National Party and tries to show it up in a false light. The National Party as a rule treats these efforts with silent contempt but occasionally when they get too bad someone has to pull the Labour suporters up and give them a good spanking. Instead of taking their spanking like men. they blubber and howl and tell everyone how sore tney are.

But to come back to these pyjamas over which “A Mere Woman ” is so profuse in her thanks to the Labour Government, and the four £5 notes which “A Navvy’s Wife ” handles every month—£l a day for 5s worth of unproductive work. Not bad! The Labour Government has driven women and children to the cowsheds to milk; children have to leave their beds at 4 o’clock in the morning to do so and then walk long distances to school, and at night have to work late in the cow sheds. No wonder the school teachers complain about the children falling asleep over their lessons—and that is how the Labour Government gets £5 notes and pyjamas for your correspondents. When she dresses her children in their pyjamas she should repeat tr them two lines of Thomas Hood’s “ Song of the Shirt It is not linen you are wearing out,

But human creatures’ lives. Mr Savage says the National Party has no vision. Perhaps not, but it has enough vision to see that the Labour Party is striving to grab the farms and put the Public Works men on them—not as prospective owners. Oh, no; but just the same as the working bullocks and horses and donkeys. They will have a place to sleep in and suitable clothes to keep them warm; the bullocks and horses and donkeys will have a shed to sleep in and covers to keep them warm, which the workers will have to mend in their spare time, and all the cows have covers which the workers will repair. They will be given a few shillings to buy clothes and food, but will have to grow the most of what they eat. They and their children will have to leave their beds at 4 o’clock every morning to start milking. The sustenance men will all be driven out of the towns on to the Labour Government's farms, and those who are not able to work with the bullocks and horses and donkeys will have to herd the geese and pigs. God help them all if they do not raise £65,000,000 worth of wool, mutton, butter, and cheese, for their Labour Government to squander. The Minister of Public Works, Mr Semple, who is so filled with a sense of his own importance that, in a speech of five minutes’ duration, he can put in 20 capital “ I’s,” will make them work hard on the farms. There now, I have given them a glimpse of “ the vision of Mr Savage.” How do they like it?—l am, etc., Balclutha. Old Nannie.