my Country Notebook

Otago Witness, Issue 4074, 12 April 1932, Page 63

my Country Notebook

by

’Murihiku.

(Special for the Otago Witness.) Snatching the harvest day by day from the alternating periods of foggy weather with fine, we worked very late yesterday. Coming up the track I remarked that the old horses were tired. “Yes,” said the driver, “ but each one of them is more valuable than Phar Lap to-day.” As it has always been understood that a live dog is better than a dead lion, so is a live draught horse more valuable than a dead thoroughbred. Our incredulous horseman will have nothing to do with the colic explanation. “He was poisoned” is his firmly held belief. And he quotes the case of Lindbergh's kidnapped babv. “If they will pinch babies for ransom they would poison a racehorse just for spite.”

The visit of General Higgins, of the Salvation Army, has had one queer result. At the reception at Parliamentary Buildings someone remembered that three South Canterbury Mayors had sung the chorus of the anti-depression hymn. A demand that Messrs Forbes, Coates, and Holland should cease their discords and join in harmony was complied with by the trio, who “sang the chorus lustily,”

and “they were enthusiastically applauded.” It is quite true that “ there is shadows in the valley but there is sunshine on the hills.” We are all worried just now because we are well down in the valley. And so far as most of us can see we will be down in the valley for some time yet. Our butter hangs around 110 s per cwt. which may mean a pay-out of 11 -Id. And our wool is not any more valuable. Until next November we will not know if next season is to be any better.

It is significant that Mr Downie Stewart did not join in the hymn about the sunshine. The cheerful singing was in the morning. Mr Stewart’s turn came at night. No one need be surprised at his tune, and we could almost anticipate the very words—Government finance goes from bad to worse; there must be further drastic economies; the national Budget will not be balanced this year or next; further taxation must be - imposed.

The unemployment tax is very disturbing to those on income or wages, for one shilling in the pound is a 5 per eent. by itself, and everybody is getting very critical as to how the money is spent. ’That is the real value of a direct tax —people see the money going out and they want to know where it goes to. Two factors are operating to drive unemployed men into the country. (1) Any useful works in the towns have been carried out already; (2) the towns are finding a great difficulty in raising any more money. So we must get men into either the primary industries in the country or into the secondary industries in the towns.

The Dunedin Chamber of Commerce can see no good point in the new policy of the Unemployment Board. 'They say there is nothing constructive in it. Well, it does set out to do some definite things: certainly there is nothing spectacular about the programme. But to get men out on to small blocks of land is surely an attempt at constructive work.

What constructive effort has the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce made? It is difficult to remember any very helpful suggestion. Of course, many city men consider that local industries should lie helped. But it is not easy to get people to agree where to start. Every little group in Dunedin wants assistance or subsidies for the industries he is interested in. But with the protective tariff we already have and the present exchange increasing that protection, together with all the dillieulties of importing to-day, the secondary industries should be very busy. To subsidise exporting industries is understandable, but what would the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce say to the suggestion in the next paragraph?

A largely attended meeting at Wairoa passed a resolution “unanimously ” that the Unemployment Board should advance the necessary money to rebuild tiie Wairoa Freezing Works. Now to the people of Wairoa that is a very commendable enterprise. But would it increase the productivity of New Zealand? The sheep and lambs will be going somewhere now to be prepared for export. How long would the Unemployment Fund last if all freezing works and dairy factories were erected wherever local people considered them desirable? The Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, having no interest in Wairoa, will probably say that we already have too many freezing works in New Zealand.

Men will not be needed in such numbers in the coal mines, for instance, as they were before electric power and petrol came in. These men have been displaced because of changing conditions. But the fact is that the men cannot go back to coal mining even if they want

to, and if New Zealand does again become prosperous. . . .

But surely we need‘not import from overseas many of the articles we have been in the habit of doing. We should make here many articles that are now imported, and if we do that then the people who make these goods and so stop imports are in a way just as valuable as those who produce for export. I his may seem heresy- to some farmers, but it will stand the test of investimition. °

If anyone cares to look back at the Austialian plan put into operation a year ago it will be realised that what Australia did then we are doing now. The reduction in interest, the 20 per cent, cut in civil service salaries—-all these things were carried out long ago. and we have been slow to followT But publie opinion is slow to form. We had an idea that our credit was so much better than Australia's. We have some doubts even on that score now.

Apart from the exchange controversy, organised farmers have attained most of the objectives they set out after 12 months ago. The Arbitration Act has been amended, giving farmers freedom; the interest rates are to be reduced; mortgagors can approach the court and have their finances adjusted; Government expenditure is being tremendously • educed. Ihe Ottawa Conference will give an opportunity to have tariff preferences and even an Empire currency considered. Ihe farmers and every other part of the community will now need to hearten themselves for a long, steady tight up out of the depression. Even slumps cannot last tor ever. Ihe Government cannot do much more than it has done. We might all remember Joshua Billings's advice:— It ain t no disgrace for a man to fall, but to lay there and grunt is.” The spirit of the old pioneer men and women, the steady determination that peixaded the New Zealand Expeditionary Force—these qualities are needed anew for the stubborn fight to convert depression into prosperity.