POINTS OF VIEW

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4221, 8 December 1939, Page 7

POINTS OF VIEW

BOROUGH COUNCIL. Sir, —On reading your report of the Borough Council meeting one comes to the conclusion that at least one councillor never misses a chance of attacking anything concerning one of the borough employees; in fact, it would appear that this is his main object on the Council, although all those who have taken an interest in civic affairs know that the employee in question has given honest, faithful service. I trust the same can be said of his traducers and their employers. —I am, etc., G. A. EMPSON. MASS MEETINGS. Sir, —Now that the mass meeting at Claudelands has been held, may I ask for a little space to comment on some , aspects. I purposely refrained from writing earlier. There were protests against holding the mass meeting, and many of them came from such organisations as the freezing workers, railways workshops workers, and the like. I seem to recall that these organisations have, on various occasions, held stop work meetings to protest against this and that real or imaginary injustice. Nuf sed! And now let me refer to your published report of that Greymouth meeting where the Hon. R. Semple gave the opponents of the Government of the day a real good tongue thrashing. But the last paragraph of the report held my attention. It says the Communist song, “The Red Flag,” was sung lustily by a large section of the audience, but not by Mr Semple. So it seems Mr Semple’e persuasive oratory—his words were wonderfully patriotic and loyal —did not persuade his listeners. Did they doubt his sincerity? It seems to me that there is a good deal more disloyalty in this Dominion than is a fair thing—and that a goodly portion of it is from people who are by no manner of means supporters of the despised Nationalists. Well, what is going to be done about it?—l am, etc. NOT WORRYING. MASS MEETINGS. Sir, —I would like one more opportunity to further the cause of these mass meetings. Perhaps Mr Wyllie, or someone of his calibre, would consider it as common, eccentric, disrespectable and against the Christian teachings to go out to the street corners, parks and public halls to compel the farmers to unite and incite them to take action against the Government? Perhaps these gentlemen might be enlightened when they read of what three great men did in their day with problems confronting them like we have to-day. The first man, John Wesley, broke away from the high conservative Church of England, and set out to travel through every part of England, where he conducted mass meetings, when things were in a deplorable state. It was said afterwards that Wesley saved England. The second man, William Wilberforce, known as the nightingale of the House of Commons for his wonderful voice and rare gift of speaking. He went right through the whole of England with mass meetings, and he convinced the people and the House of Commons that slavery should be abolished. The result was that the British people paid the slave owners £20,000,000 in compensation to liberate the slaves. The third man was Dr Kawaga, the great Japanese evangelist. He left a beautiful home, and went to live in the slums of Tokio. He took part in a dockyard strike and incited the workers to strike, for they worked long hours for small pay. Dr Ka-

waga was imprisoned, but after being released he was given the highest post in the Japanese Government; he was made administrator of the labour bureaux for workers in Japan.

There is still a chance yet for Mr Sinclair, or some other man, to go right through New Zealand and with these mass meetings, incite the farmers to join up into a strong union, on the same principle as the other three men did. There are only three alternatives facing the New Zealand farmers to-day. The first thing to do is to go back to the old system of taking any price for our produce, work any number of hours, and pay the employee a small wage. Second, socialise the whole of the land and wealth, and put every farmer on to one common footing, like ordinary workmen—and that means liberty and freedom gone. Third: Every farmer must unite, and thus fix upon the price of butter, wool, cheese, bacon, bobby calves, wages, hours, holidays—everything. It can be done, if we unite. I think the bobby calf industry is a disgrace to New Zealand modern farming. We have to wait six months to get anything, and worse, we don’t know what we are going to get. The calves are railed to the freezing works, and stand the chance of being starved, and left in the trucks if the freezing worker feels tired or wishes to put down his tools as he did two years ago. It might be done again this coming season, leaving the calves in the trucks. I would like to congratulate Mrs Coverdale for her effort to unite the farmer by using the pen, and I hope she will be able to, by voice and pen, convince those unsophisticated, oldfashioned conservative members of the Farmers’ Union, and other pol-ished-up gentlemen farmers, that they are behind with the times. We must advance. When George Stephenson brought out his “Rocket,” all were afraid that the smoke would kill the cows. The same spirit is still in the farmer—many of them, at any rate. So why not start right away? Even if we have to make a sacrifice to start it, it will be worth while in the end. I will conclude by honing that Mrs Coverdale will be able to raise up that Scottish Battalion Pipe Band, and lead the farming community to Wellington, and storm Parliament Buildings. One word in reference to Mr Smedley. He says the farmer worked harder fifty years ago. I quite agree with him. So did the worker. He had no union to fix up hfs hours, wages, holidays, compensation, or overtime, and he had to work hard for very little. Now the worker has got everything. Why not the farmer, too?—I am, etc., CHISHOLM CALDER. Te Mawhai. INCREASING PRODUCTION. Sir, —“Increase Production”, “Take Men Off Public Works,” and such like words seem at the present to be

stamped on the brain of leaders of all manner of organisations of both men and women. Just which are the unproductive public works that should be stopped nobody seems to say. How have these works come to be started? In most cases they are desired by electors in the different parts of the country and are only a fraction of what is asked for from the Ministers of the Crown when. 7 they tour the various electorates. There are other types of men who could, with advantage, be drafted into the ranks of the rural workers.The numerous agents and selling all manner of things from'' manures to chests of tea (sixty lb. ones, no less, when there was a supposed shortage). These men all come round in good cars, adding to - the cost of goods sold and are quite superfluous as farmers can order their requirements by post or when ’ in town. Throughout New Zealand there must be hundreds of them. Then we have the increasing number of prosperous farmers employing share-milkers and living in semi-re-tirement in the towns and in many cases securing an agency as an occupation. These men could do a great deal to increase production on their farms by growing roots for both cows and pigs and leaving the cows and attendant work to the milkers. . Just recently there seems to be a veritable deluge of expressions of loyalty to Britain from the leaders of movements in the towns, followed the remarks in the opening lines of this letter, but I have yet to read of one man amongst them offering to become a primary producer and with his own hands doing something to increase the so-much desired ■ sterling funds and not just calling ' on the other fellow. Why do our young men dislike working for farmers? The longer hours are not the only draw back. From experience I know it is the social status that turns so many smart boys and young men away from farm employment. “Somebody’s farm hand” or so and so’s man does not seem to be a very helpful introduction into any society. The treatment as an inferior in the homes and the poor sleeping quarters, in many cases are another objection. All these things lie in the hands of the farmer and his wife and must be changed if men are to be attracted to rural occupations as employees. The Farmers’ Union and the Women’s Division could with advantage take these matters up and if they could thus raise the social status of the helpers so needed by the farming community they would have gone a long way to removing the dislike to becoming a farm-hand.—l am, etc. A WOMAN FARMER.