Wages And Rent.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 41, 18 February 1931, Page 6

Wages And Rent.

To the Editor. Dear Sir, —I was amused at Mr D. G. Sullivan’s views in Saturday’s “Star.” Ha says that Mr Forbes’s proposals are revolutionary. The Government, however, faces a deficit of £4,500,000, and wishes to pay it. Well, all honest men like to pay their debts. Socialists in Australia do not. Mr Sullivan says that the Government has changed its opinions and now thinks the same as the Reform Opposition. Great minds evidently think alike. Talk about the Tory flag is all bunk. All honest men are proud of a nation that pays its debts, we know that the railways are not paying, so it is about time there was a change: Mr Sullivan complains that the Government does not compel moneylenders to lower their interest; he knows the Government cannot do it. Let me remind him that wages have gone up 80 per cent since 1914, and that interest has only gone up 1 per cent. Facts are facts. Mr Sullivan says that rents have not come down. Rents cannot come down until wages come down. There are lots of men employed on timber before it gets to the timber yard. If their wages were reduced, timber would be much cheaper. It is the same with carpenters, painters, bricklayers, plumbers, electricians, drain-layers, etc. All are paid high wages. When those wages are reduced, rents will come down, but not before. I think that Mr Sullivan had his tongue in his cheek when he made the statement to the “ Star.”—l am, etc., HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY.