BRITAIN AND THE NEW ZEALAND FARMER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24431, 17 October 1940, Page 9

BRITAIN AND THE NEW ZEALAND FARMER

fO THE EDITOR Sir,—When a man m a responsible position makes a public statement it is to be expected that he has foundation for his statement, Mr R. S. Thompson, who presided at a meeting of the Otago Provincial Council of the Otago Farmers’ Union on Tuesday, stated that there were 20,000,000 people in Britain who had less than 10s a week to spend cn food. Nelson's World Gazetteer gives the population of England as 37.790.000. On Mr Thompson’s figures, therefore, more than half of the population of England alone is in this unenviable position. The statement is, however, absurd. Mr Thompson also stated that but for the war New Zealand would have been left with 1.000. carcasses of mutton on her hands, and he wanted to know why all this meat could not have been sent to Britain, where the people would have welcomed it. Mr Thompson went on;— “ But not only was the Imperial Government prepared to let its own people starve; it was prepared to ruin the farming industry in N,ew Zealand. That position must never arise again.” This is an absolutely ridiculous statement. Charity begins at home, and the Imperial Government is chiefly concerned —and rightly so—in saving its own farmers from ruin. Could a more unfair statement appear in the public press? Everything is all right with Britain, apparently, so long as she carries New Zealand on her back, as she has been doing for many years, thus enabling the Dominion to maintain her oft-quoted high standard of living, probably the highest in the world. When the heavily-taxed Briton, for his own preservation, gives consideration to his own particular interests. then, according to Mr Thompson. he is trying to ruin the famine industry in New Zealand. That does not read sense to me. —I am, etc..

Common Sense.