BISHOP’S ATTACK

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17454, 31 December 1930, Page 11

BISHOP’S ATTACK

COMMUNISTS DEFINED TIME-PAYMENT CONDEMNED BATHURST, Dec. 23. Dr. Norton, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Bathurst, speaking; at a gathering of the A.11.C. Guild, said that the great weakness in Australian national life was an utter disregard among the people of making provision for the future and the recklessness with which money was spent on useless things, such as amusements and luxuries.

Many people seemed to bo afraid that their money would burn a hole in their pockets if they did not get riel of it quickly. A contributing factor to the present depression was the time-payment system, which had been imported from America, Articles of luxury had also been imported from the same country, which had purchased practically nothing from Australia, and which had this country heavily mortgaged as a result of the lime-payment system, .fie had no objection to a man buying a house on the instalment plan, as the acquisition of property gave him a stake in the country, which was one of the safest bulwarks against the inroads of Communism. Communists as a. rule were men who had nothing, and agitated for revolutions in order that they might secure what other men had acquired by the sweat of their brow and the strength of their arm. He was alarmed when he learned that 10,000 people deliberately voted for Communists in. the New South Wales -elections. They apparently wanted reproduced in Australia, the frightful chaos, misery, and brutality existing in Russia to-dav.

The Mayor, Alderman Griffin, who is president, of the Bathurst branch of the A.L.P., endorsed the bishop’s attitude towards Communism, which lie described as a hateful and infamous doctrine.