POINTS OF VIEW

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 25, Issue 3760, 25 May 1936, Page 5

POINTS OF VIEW

OPINIONS OF OUR READERS.

OUR RAILWAYS. Sir, —I read with deep interest the article in the Courier advocating the time was approaching when goods would be carried free of charge on our railways, the cost being charged presumably to the Consolidated account. The logic appealed to me, and I suggest the subject is worthy of debate by our local Chamber "of Commerce, mock parliament, or any debating society. All innovations are derided when first considered. The arguments advanced by your correspondent were not altogether strange to me, for the sufficient reason that I have long thought along the same lines. I can see in this a burning political subject in the days not far distant. The fact that there are so mapy classes of freights supports the idea. It would remove the injustice of people in an area like Waikato paying very heavy freights in order that the railways can carry goods to small isolated seaports at a silly rate, thereby ousting the steamer, which in earlier days had promoted the settlement of that district, It could also remove the gross anomaly of users of the profitable lines having to pay high charges to liquidate the cost of running unprofitable and political railway lines. These are handicaps on the country districts which the leading seaport towns (where the colossal railway stations are erected), are not called upon to carry to anything like the same extent. In short, the present system assists to make living conditions cheaper in the big cities in comparison with the country districts, while at the same time these commercial centres could not exist but for the activity of the outlying communities. —I am, etc.. NEW IDEA.

LOCAL ENTERPRISE. Sir, —Frequently in your paper I read of the desire to develop more trade in Te Awamutu, and perhaps you will allow me to suggest the opportunity for a real good bagwash business here. I know of several people who would welcome an establishment and perhaps somebody with experience and enterprise will look into this proposal further.—l am, etc., OPPORTUNITY.

A MINISTER’S METAPHOR!. Sir, —The Minister for Labour appears to have created a sensation by stating it was the intention ot the Government to raise every labourer to the status of a millionaire. This remark in no way upset the equilibrium of those persons who discerned that the Minister was speaking in metaphoric terms. He really meant to convey the Impression that by means of costless credit there would be ushered into Maoriland a worker’s paradise, thereby removing any chance for the growth of the parasite known as the millionaire. Whether labourer or millionaire, they need only the same nourishment, and can sleep in only one bed at a time. It is inflation the Opposition appear to be concerned with In Germany inflation was a deliberate policy to wipe out Internal war debts, and the millions of half-starved Germans had only the priests of the Golden Calf (in this case the millionaires and armament kings) to thank for the appalling misery and poverty which followed the inflation of the German mark. The policy of inflation in Russia was definitely adopted for the purpose of destroying the private trader by making Russian currency valueless. In England, which of course means the British Empire, If the financial side of the Great War had been managed in a scientific manner, instead of being made a usurer’s paradise all the materials of war could have been produced without a halfpenny of permanent national debt, which was thus increased by at least £7,000,000,000. It was no labourer’s paradise for the English Tommy, who took the risk of losing his life by disease, shot and shell, and received the great sum of one shilling per day Those who came through the ordeal have been engaged ever'since in raising the money to pay for the materia! used in protecting the valuables and securities of the great share of the seven thousand million pounds which belonged to the millionaire. There is a marvel of difference between financing public works by a note issue through the Reserve Bank and the financing of similar schemes by borrowed capital. In the one case the already overburdened' taxpayer is faced with an increased load of interest on the borrowed money, and eventually the repaying of the loan. With foe financing of industrial recovery by the method of State noninterest bearing note issue these difficulties do not exist. Usury is not only immoral, but it is economically ruinous to every society in which it finds a home. It has hurled great civilisations of the past to the ground; it is definitely opposed to Christian ethics. It has caused that much tragedy in New Zealand that a short time ago we had 80,000 unemployed, and mountains ot misery in our midst. Is it any Wonder friend Armstrong spoke with biting sarcasm of the system which created the millionaire at one end of the scale and dire poverty on the other. If the labourer is placed in profitable employment it must be to the advantage of the whole communitv —I am, etc., y JUSTICE FOR ALL.

FARM LABOUR. Sir, —We hear a lot about foe Government’s proposals to introduce a 40-hour week, and higher rates of pay into the Public Works Department. The unemployed are also to have increased benefits. Yet there is one class who we do not hear of getting anything done to better their conditions. I refer to the farm labourers. Farmers all over the country at the present time are

calling out for men, and there are thousands on the dole. Yet it is proposed to increase the dole. I would like to know how the farmers are going to get on for labour then ? Writing as one who has worked on different farms in Canterbury, I can only say that the treatment farmers give their men, low wages, long hours, and poor living conditions, is a lot to blame for the trouble. However distasteful it may be to a large number of farmers, the formation of a union of (arm workers to safeguard the iliterests, and improve the status and social position of those who work oh land, would strengthen the position, not only of the worker, but the farmer as well in the long run. The lowering of the social and economic position of the workers in an industry cannot solve the problems of that industry but only accentuate them. As it is now we find that there are very few boys, apart from farmers' sons, or those who are being started on farms of their own, being trained at agricultural colleges, as farm workers. It is not to be wondered at that those who have no brains, but a strong back, and who cannot get a job at anything else, are paid just as well as those who have been trained and have some degree of intelligence. They have also to put up with the same low standard of accommodation and living conditions. Look around the districts. Take the Waikato or Raglan districts; with the exception of Bryant’s Farm Scheme, where do you find a cottage on the farms for the farm labourers and their family, where they are handy to their work? If they happen to be living in Hamilton foey would have to either walk or bike out perhaps sor 6 miles or more. They cannot do this every morning, and back at night after working all day—very likely from daylight till" dark. I know from my own experiences of working on farms, accommodation was very poor. Sleeping in the chaff, house, next to the stables, on bags of chaff, among the rats and mice, and low wages at that. This was when the farmers, about 30-odd years ago, were more prosperous than they are now. The only difference they had was horses and traps or buggies. To-day they have cars. We all know what the farming industry is worth to New Zealand, and it is time that the slavery in connection with it was abolished and the workers’ lot made a more contented one!—I am, etc., .. A. J. LILLEY.

REPLY TO MR BROADFOOT.

Sir,—<ln an issue of recent date Mr Broadfoot, M.P., continues to persue with tenacity the guaranteed prices Bill, and questions of land cofti. trol. In tine early part of the oofftributed article, he avers “that it is much easier to produce goods than to sell them, and get a reasonably price.” Comment is almost superfluous. What defence is there for such a system? The unconscious strife, tore is well merited! It is such » system that has been employed by Mr Cordell Hull, Secretary of State tor U.S.A. He contributed commendable sentiments at the London Economic Conference; and has stated ot the earth’s population of 2000 millions, 80 per cent, of them are living on the hunger line. If the selling of goods constitutes such a difficult#, why does Mr Broadfoot abject to the resources of the State being utilised to obtain prices commensurate with" the values of the commodities?Though about to be instituted in New Zealand, a National Marketing Policy is not an innovation in other countries. The Labour Party in Britain instituted such a measure in 1931, and Mr Walter Elliot, Minister of Agriculture, exploited the idea in 1933, when he introduced the Agricultural Marketing Act, under pressure from the National Farmers' Union, though that body was openly hostile to it when introduced by the Labour Party two years earlier. Gould Mr Broadfoot conceive of the guaranteed prices being so devastatingly disastrous as the application of quotas as suggested by Rt Hon. X G. Coates? The London Economist, of December 9th, 1934, before the passing of the Milk and Beef Acts, observed of English farming “the total money granted by the Treasury now amounts to £45,000,000 annually.” It is considered that the total grants to English fanning would pay in foto the wages of all th|e agricultural labourers of the country. And yet the problem is involved and the industry languishes! I suggest the solution may be found in 'the individual ownership of tile land and the predatory control of credit and currency which Mr Broadfoot so cordially advocates or defends. Like many others, Mr A. P. McDougal, founder of the Scottish. Farmers’ Union, is alive to the failure of the present form' of ownership, contending that Britain is farming at 50 per cent of possibility and advocates what may be formed large scale production with all its inherent advantages. Despite your correspondent’s innuendos and implications the Primarv Products Marketing Bill, is an honest endeavour to assist in the solution of the problems of the,, producers.—l arr|, ate. I. E. DUNCAN.