VILIFICATION OF LANG

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1932, Page 12

VILIFICATION OF LANG

WISDOM OF POLICY DOUBTED.

CHRISTCHURCH SOLICITOR’S VIEW

So loudly have the Sydney newspapers been vilifying Mr. Lang that Mr. F. AV. Johnston, a Christchurch solicitor, who returned the other day from a brief visit to Australia, fears that they may assist rather than hinder his party’s return to power. At the same time he found a general opinion in Sydney that the party would be defeated at the forthcoming election, but that Mr. Lang himself would hold his own seat.

“The political battle in the Press ia exceptionally severe,” Mr. Johnston told a reporter of the Press. “As a dispassionate observer, the chief thing that struck ’me was that the way in which Mr. Lang was attacked might have a boomerang effect, particularly among the wavering voters—that it might induce those without strong opinions one way or the other to give Mr. Lang and his party a sympathetic vote. “We all know that if counsel in defending a prisoner conducts his case in such a way that he calls down numerous reprimands from the presiding Judge, the jury, and especially the unthinking section of hem, are apt to swing over, and think that the accused has not had a fair run. In the same way, I think the newspapers are overdoing the vilification of Mr. Lang.” It°is twenty-four years since Mr. Johnston last visited Sydney, then with the New Zealand representative bowline team. He found that the city had gone ahead rapidly, and was impressed particularly with the number of manystoried buildings in all parts. He w6nt over the harbour bridge, as everyone did, and he visited also one of the underground stations, which the Sydney people claimed were unsurpassed in the world.

“A superficial observer would hardly know that anything, at all was wrong with the country,” he said. “Everyone seemed well dressed, and everyone seemed to have money to spend. What was more important, everybody was cheerful and hopeful. In the main streets there were very few shops which were not let, and those mostly, as far as I could see, were corner shops. I did not have time to inquire, but from this fact I made the deduction that

notwithstanding the strenuous times, landlords are ktill perhaps asking A disproportionately heavy rent for corner shops.” There'was a general opinion that Mr. Lang’s dismissal had had a beneficial effect upon the State’s commerce, but that was merely the opinion voiced in the street. One important shop claimed to have taken £4OO more cash in the week following the dismissal. "It is said that the percentage of interest payments made by borrow l ers in Australia compares very favourably with the percentage in New Zealand,” added Mr. Johnston, ‘‘but I think that is only because we got into the economic backwash later than the Commonwealth. I think that when we reach the stage where they are now, we ought to be in as good a position as Australia.”