“SHEER COMMUNISM”
STATE AND MUNICIPAL TRADING EX-NEW ZEALANDER APPALLED t
Mi 1 . Robert Bell, of Christchurch, who has been on a six months’ visit to Alaska, North-west Canada, and California, returned to New Zealand oil Monday by the Maunganui. “In San Francisco,” Mr. Bell said in Wellington, “I had a conversation with a business man, a native of New Zealand, and he asked many questions about, his native land. He was particularly pleased to hear that the line Climate and beautiful scenery was attracting many tourists; that production from the soil was increasing and the export trade expanding. When, however, I told him of governmental and municipal trading activities he was appalled, and said: ‘This is sheer Communism. There can only be one end to that. It will destroy all ambition and initiative in business men and gradually lead to the withdrawal of capital from the country.
‘“You tell me about the so-called cheap money the Government is findihg for mortgages, and that private tenders and also thrift institutions such as building societies, insurance companies, and the like, are being driven out of the mortgage market. That is inevitable. Your Government gets cheap money on the London market by pledging the credit of the country and its citizens, and then proceeds to undercut those citizens by one-half per cent. A most iniquitous state of affairs! Looking ahead a few years it is conceivable that the Government will be the sole mortgagee. What then.’ Why, the mortgagors, the people of the country, will tell the Government of that day that if is only the servant of the people, and that they refuse to pay interest or repay capital. That’s how it looks to me. As a newspaper man you should be unceasing in your efforts to ‘scotch’ this iniquitous state of affairs, for 1 feel that if all these activities of your Government and local bodies continue, New Zealand, my native land, wifi not be worth living in by hard-work-ing, progressive or self-respecting people.’ ”
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PBH19281121.2.95
Bibliographic details
Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16807, 21 November 1928, Page 9
Word Count
333“SHEER COMMUNISM” Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16807, 21 November 1928, Page 9
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