FOR THE PEOPLE!

Observer, Volume XL, Issue 27, 6 March 1920, Page 2

FOR THE PEOPLE!

A Question of Hide

THE eminent statesman sat in his sanctum, his heart bleeding for the People, and his brain working overtime, thinking out schemes for the benefit of the' masses. The problem ne was on was hides. H^-knew that hides were important, -because people were shod with 'hides ;■ Lthat harness was made of hidesy". anjd that with the large addition *lor/ str-aw-board the bag of the poj|ti'cian was 1 also made of hide. ■■*;-■ %-',.

But principally, oT course, he thought of boots. "During the war," he said, "there was so great a . demand for hides that bloots "went up." It Avas so necessary to shoe the feet of New Zealanders that it became also necessary to forbid the export of hides.

But we didn't shoe New Zealanders to aey dizzy extent. We hoarded hides—tens of thousands of them* We imported boots from England, America, Canada, and Australia, while the hides were being hoarded.

A New Zealander could get a very good ten and sixpenny pair of boots for 30s. It was a high price." What's to be done? In order to relieve the situation, and to show my heart is bleeding for the People, I will allow all these hoarded hides to be exported. The hide merchants will make millions of pounds, and. because there are.more New Zealand hides about than for many years, my dear subjects shall pay £4 a pair ;f or boots. If that isn't statesmanship, give it a name!"

In short, the positjbii is " More hides—fewer boots—fewer bopt^— more cash for the fat 5 less cash for the lean." . ~

It seems not to occur to our great statesmen who are making presents of millions to and a present of bare feet to everybody else, to insist that New Zealand shall retain sufficient of her own products for her own use. What'is true of hides is true of timber and butter and meat.

;;: The Government,' in the, matter of hides/ distinct!}' kicks the bootwearer in the ribs when,there': is ; the best chance of him being cheap- ;;;•■• ly shod, all, it distinctly ; r aids,;and a|ijj|tfs profiteering at the ' monient, when-it is talking: moist loudly ;of profiteering tribunals and .. punishment of profiteers. .. What about it? Collapse about it—that's all! An eminent authority likens the high price racket to the throwing of a boomerang whicli hits the thrower. Nonsense! If it ■ijg.true that by the aid of the Government one firm of hide merchants with one million pounds of hoarded . hidjesi.will be allfl#>d to make a profit of £500,000, what does it matter to millionaires if the price of commod.ities rise? " ' * * * You can't hit millionaires with a rise in the price of haircuts, or tea, or beer, or bread. The profiteer will have lashings to eat and drink when the Government is. obliged to open soup kitchens, and to release meat from stores to feed the hungry. * * * . ;A seeker after, truth asked . a hoarder of gold the other day what was at the basis of the high price „ era.: He replied, "The demand for high wages by the working man." How he justified hide-hoarding and meat-hoarding and, butter-hoarding with the contention doesn't appear. "The worst thing the. workers evier did," said, the authorities, was -to combine to raise wages,, for the ''big men" combine, too. No small man starting in business nowadays has a hope—rhe is squashed immediately, and obviously, according to the logician, he deserves to be squashed by hide-merchants and every other kind of'hoarder, for his insolence in merely desiring to be allowed to purchase the goods hehimself produces in his own land at a fair price. *. . .* ' * The boomerang may hit back, but it will,bounce off the profiteer's pocket, and hit the Government's chopping block—the payer in the stomach. The hide hoarders and every other kind of hoarder should thank God on their knees for the Massey Government.