Are They Slipping?

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 643, 22 December 1932, Page 10

Are They Slipping?

Dear Sir,—The unknown is not a!wav* feared by man. It is sometimes regarded as being something wonderful. It all depends on how the imagination is played upon. It is then we get heaven and hell; and it is thus that all the places Mr Howard says could be turned into a sort of heaven upon earth are all away somewhere —away in the south, or away in the north, or away anvwhere, so long as it is away somewhere whereof his constituents know little or nothing. _ # “ The young people are slipping, they are letting go, thev are not keeping hold, they have had a better education than their parents, yet they are slipping," wrote Mr Howard. That is a serious slander on the young people, but fortunately it is not true. The young people of to-day are up against two very serious difficulties. One is the economic blizzard that is affecting every country, and the other is the fact that thousands of young people have been denied the right to learn to do any kind of skilled work, because of the actions of unions and the Labour Party in limiting the number who could do skilled work for the purpose of forcing up prices against other workers. The slump will pass, but the curse placed on the young people of New Zealand by the Labour Party will be with them all their lives. Yet they are not slipping; they are holding on wonderfully well. A slump struck New Zealand in 1879, and lasted through the 'eighties. It was more severely felt here than in most countries, and in consequence there was an exodus. Many went to Australia, where things were better. According to Mr Howard's letters he joined that exodus. He should be the last to sneer at the young people and say they are slipping and letting go and that they are not holding on.—l am, etc., READER.