WHERE WILL IT END?

Taranaki Daily News, 6 November 1930, Page 7

WHERE WILL IT END?

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I have heard men of nrany nationalities cry out in agony, “Oh, my poor country!” and well may the settlers of New Zealand, use the same expression 'to-day, when they consider the state it is in, with its heavy burden of public, local bodies’ and private debts, interest on which lias to be found; the large numbers there are in the public service, and the huge figures of its pay sheet, arid the numbers still unemployed. Land settlement is at ■ a standstill, -interest, rates and taxes are up, and the returns from exportable products are going down to a very low ebb. The promises made at the last election of cheaper money for the primary producer, public works, further land settlement, taxation to be reduced, economies to be made in all branches of public expenditure, and work for all the Unemployed —all but the last is broken, and that has been carried out by placing men on the pay sheet to cut off corners, widen out and ease the grades of the roads, so that the people can travel and carry their goods by motor instead of by rail, and to make more railways that have not the remotest chance of making a financial return. And all with pick and shovel anti wheel barrow at 14s per day or its equivalent. What a costly game! And jiow to carry this on an imposition tax of 3Qs has been placed upon every adult male, with few exceptions, in the country, many of whom have worked and struggled for forty or fifty years, lived and paid their way without any 1 avernment assistance, and now can ill-afford the penalty, but must register or be fined and pay or be fined £lOO. What a farce! Not only will the industrious and thrifty have to pay their own 30s, but will also through the hospital rate have to contribute to the payment for the thriftless. And now the Government will have to find more employment or pay the weekly dole for nothing. Where is the money to come from in the end? Only from the primary producer, or by further borrowing for so-called public ; works, .which is adding more weight to the already heavy,’ burden of the country. Where is it going to end? Only in chaos, the same as it is in Australia. And so it will be so long as the party system of government as obtains to-day is carried on. As xyith the lost soul, we may say Parliament is over, the barren session is ended, and the country is not saved. —I am, etc,, J PIONEER.