ALL ROUND SACRIFICES.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1930, Page 5 (Supplement)

ALL ROUND SACRIFICES.

(To The Editor.) i 'Sir.—Mr. Polson has done some pretty straight talking in the House as reported in your issue of October 11. He seems to be the only member game enough to take the bull by the horns and quote cold facts to show that he ■present depressed condition can only be met by every section of the community making sacrifices to help the whole icommunity over the present depression. He pointed out pretty plainly that the .Government cannot go on bolstering up .the labour market at the expense of the producers of the country. I have been •wondering for some time how long it will take the producers to wake up and make a very definite protest to the Government against the payment of 14s iper day for unemployed relief work. It won’t be very long before the Government will be finding work for practically all the single men from the country districts and a good many married men as we'll. We will soon be called upon to .pay this 80s poll tax, and I am surprised that some of our producers’ organisations have not protested against the high rate of pay for relief work. (Every producer and farm labourer in (the country should absolutely refuse to pay this tax until such time as the pay is reduced to a figure that will make the single men at any rate look for more remunerative work. Most producers to-day are working 14 hours at least and seven days per week for far less weekly wages or returns than the Government pay for relief "work.

Mr. Polson has taken a bold stand and' every producer should read his speech and support him to the last ditch. Surely some of our organisations such as the Farmers’',Union will take up this matter by calling meetings ,of all producers to protest against paying the 30s poll tax until the rate >f pay on relief work is considerably reduced. It is no use the Acting Prime Minister saying that a 'cut in wages iwill do the producer no good at the present time. He is a farmer himself and knows very well we are back beyond the ,1914 prices for produce and if costs are pot reduced to the producers we will soon be in a worse plight than Australia. If we had a Prime Minister with the welfare of the country at heart. he would make a start by reducing the cost of Government administration and cutting salaries of all government officials, the big ones first and work down .the line, not forgetting to reduce his .own and all members’ salaries. The .extra £lOO they made themselves a present, of last year should also be returned to the Treasury. All these costly commissions should be cut out, as their (findings are very seldom acted upon. .It is no use ■waiting for things to get so bad that the money markets are closed to us, as has happened to Australia. They are now putting their house in .order because beggars can’t be choosers, and are we going to follow their example?—l am, etc.. FARMER.