PUBLIC OPINION

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXVIII, Issue 64, 9 March 1933, Page 2

PUBLIC OPINION

FURTHER PRIVILEGES FOR THE FARMERS So the latest law has added one more privilege to the sheepmen and the cowmen, and taken away another equality from the city and town dwellers (writes Mr E. J. Howard, M.P., in the Christchurch Star). Not only is the country vote 28 per cent greater or of more value when exercised than the town vote, but the pound becomes 25 per cent of more value to the country man than to th? city or town man. Because of this the farmer banks and money-lending institutions have received seats on the right hand of Parliament. They have been permitted by law to do things never dreamed of by common people. They can create money or they can destroy money, and so we find ourselves, after ninety years, with a land overflowing with goods, but with no money to buy them. We find a country with a population of young men and maidens longing to do work to produce goods, but who cannot do so because we have no money. The vision of the pioneer has faded and ia its place we have land going out of cultivation, and 'men going out of cultivation and deteriorating as fast almost as the land. The turn of the tide can never be seen by the most careful observer ,and yet there is a point at which it stops or appears to stop before it again comes in. "At the Cross-roads” We are at the crossroads in this country and it is for this country to say which road we are to take. A small committee of not more than twenty persons forced a Prime Minister to change his plans and go back •on all lie had Said previously. If twenty can fore© an issue surely there are sufficient people in this Dominion who know What they want and know how t« demand it. Those twenty

changed the whole policy of the party in power because they knew what they wanted. The secret of our troubles at present is our monetary system. It is, of course, an orthodox system of un orthodox world, but it is a system that broke down directly war broke out. and has not recovered up to date. The tide is not right out yet- in New Zealand. The giving of a blank cheque to a politician is like giving a loaded revolver to a child —anyone might get hurt. The sales '.ax is the next proposition. Then comes the removal of all tariffs to give the oversea manufacturer an equal chance with the local manufacturer. So the local manufacturer will have to provide his share of the 25 per cent pegged exchange, and meet his competitor on an equal ground with the advantage in the hands of his competitor because of his large scale production. The road we should take is to provide our own needs. We should feed, clothe, and house New Zealand people first, and then think of an outside market. We could do this with a managed currency —a currency based on goods and on services. The Road to Serfdom If we do not take that road we have to take the road back to .serfdom. We have started on that road. We have, to use a Minister’s expression, thrown ten thousand men over the fence to farmers. We are now going to establish small holdings Alongside large holdings so that the small holder can render cheap service to the large holder. The further we go along that road the harder it will be to get back. It is for New Zealand to say now which road we are to take. Remember the twenty men who knew, what they wanted and got it’/ Ever since the industrial rcvdlution we' have had these periods of depression.; They have been caused mainly by allowing private people to make or I destroy money. If the means of! exchange is commanded by the few,’ the many must suffer. Look through the long tunnel of depression and;

there isn’t a glimpse of light . Turn and retrace our steps, and there is light and life and plenty for men of good will. No one is to blame where all are guilty. If twenty men, who knew what they wanted could get it, it is time for the other half-million to get busy. Of the twenty men who forced the pegging of the exchange, only five of them were in Parliament. The moral is plain. Give up sport for a time and think out the problem of putting New Zealand on the road to prosperity. Think only of sport, and the twenty get their way.