INTEREST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 164, 14 July 1933, Page 4

INTEREST

Sir, —There is an aspect of our present trouble which, no newspaper has ventured to state, it is one which touches the bottom of the world’s disease—yet no important press organ has yet had the courage to give it any hearing. our newspapers sicken us with the endless tale of efforts to patch up and continue our crazy machine, which won’t go much longer, being antiquated and composed of particles which contained the seeds of disintegration from the very start. This edilice of ours was founded on a lie and on a direct defiance of a law laid down in the early part of the Bible. Leviticus 25: 35 to 37. As with individuals, so with nations. Plato points out the sure and certain result of individual and national exploitation for profits, which we ar e pleased to call “interest,” and it is war. As the daughter of an English farmer who farmed an important North of England farm for 50 years, I can shed some light on the position of English Agriculturalists, who were driven to poverty during the last 40 years by the excessive imports from the (Dominions and other countries. Aly father, in common with the bulk of English farmers who comprise two-thirds of England’s population, with their workers, was ruined because New Zealand and Australia took his wool market, the Argentine his beef market, and Denmark and the Continent his butter, egg, poultry and vegetable markets; and all he was left to sell was milk at Bid to lid a gallon. His expenses averaged £2OOO a year with rent, taxes, wages, etc., and ho got no hearing in Parliament during the years of industrial boom. England, having lost much of her industrial market through the development of industries in other countries, is now beginning to be aware of her real wealth as an agricultural country, hence the quota system which spell., ruin to this country. Not England alone will harden the above system against imports from the Dominions, but all other countries will do likewise as each becomes equipped internally with power machines capable of turning out enormous quantities of material. In this connection the notable book by Fred Henderson should be studied—“ The Economic Consequences of Power Production.’’ I have lived in India for 12 years as a Government official, and have travelled extensively over the length and breadth of the country. My work look me several times a year over the whole of the Punjab, including Simla, Delhi, etc., and 1 revisited India last year, returning here in October. 1 can assure those who hope to extend markets in India that they are mistaken. India is placarded from one end to the other with “Boycott British Goods, Buy Indian” and one has only to read the national papers, including the Pioneer (which has become intensely Nationalistic) to see that this sentiment is being encouraged as strongly as possible. I know the Dutch East Indies well, having stayed some time in Java, an island the same size as the North Island here bat containing a population of 39 millions who appear well-led, happy, free and laughing people. It will surprise me if the Dutch allow much exploitation by New Zealand of their markets in those islands when they (the Dutch) possess a splendid licet of fast ships trading between Europe and Tanjong Priok, Java. It appears that each country is being forced to learn a lesson by the contracting of its markets, and that lesson is the fact that the teaching in the Bible regarding usury was given for our guidance, and that any habits or customs of ours which go contrary to that law will bring ruin and disgrace to us. That is the case to-day. We have evolved a system of finance which is based on usury. We borrow money for all our public and private wants and engage ourselves in a life-long struggle to meet the debt and repay interest. No country possesses the cash to pay interest, which is usury in fact,

therefore each country seeks to export Its produce and obtain the money from some other individuals in order to meet hab?t ay f"i ntS ' SUCh a pitch has ,h « habit of borrowing grown that it is the most important trade in the world today and we are all it., slaves, and wo have bound the unborn generations to ~_thc wheels of Jug 0 Wo .disguise our fatal habit by all sorts of high-sounding names—gilt edged securities (gilt indeed for there is no true metal about them). We go hat in hand, cringing like slaves to our nnl l ? iaSt f r k th ®, fina "cial money-mono-polist, and humbly beg for a few pounds to go on With our miserable living We speak of all our necessary public works as having “cost so much,” as stXf n h r eavy bardcn , s on our necks, inad of regarding them as assets which Wil. increase our wealth and comfort. We own nothing, nor can we own anything under our system, not even oiir a™ sc ’ f r C?P e ft ±°r that left us long ago As British people we have degraded the stock we sprang from, tho great ones of Elizabeth’s time who founded the Empire—they would regard us, their off spring with horror, as slaves and serfs who are unable to devise a system which would free ourselves from debt. No benefit will accrue to us bv attempts to unfreeze money and lend it out again at interest. It will never benc fit us again to flagrantly disobey the Divine Law. If such a course is pursued by men whose eyes are blinded by tolly, their sons will rise up to curse them. Exporting as a means to live has failed ami will continue to fail. Pho only remedy is to declare New Zealand to be a Sovereign State capable of issuing her own currency to her own people free of debt, free of taxation, and for a mighty effort to be made to induce millions of good sound British stock to com© and live in these islands for tho purpose of protecting them from predatory invaders. L challenge all British men to critically examine present day methods of finance and tho shocking effect they have on human life, binding it to a continually reducing scale of living of deteriorating standards of excellence in all creative works of men. We do act seek the best, nor can we, for we are bound hand and foot to accept poor substitutes in houses, clothing, in art, in transport and we arc losing our heritage for it is passing into alien hands. Awake! Men of New Zealand, see the pit you have fallen into! Restore Biblical standards and regain your selfrespect. —1 am, etc., “ANGLO-INDIAN.” Goldies Brae Wellington.