THE THIEF IN THE NIGHT.

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19598, 10 June 1935, Page 9

THE THIEF IN THE NIGHT.

I I (To the Editor.) I Sir, —“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” 'Tlie day is swiftly coming when we shall realise Hie bitter truth of these words. The freedom which our fathers bought with blood and agony, in the abiding faith that their children would guard it, as a sacred trust, is being filched I from us. Throughout the ages liberty has been assailed by priest or lung, by fire and sword. Oft thwarted and betrayed, mankind has struggled painfully upward. At long last, when it seemed that -the goal was almost reached, shall oui children say of us that, false to our trust, we apathetically allowed the shackles of slavery to be riveted upon our hands and E eirs? 1 In Italy, Germany and Austria we 1 have seen tyranny enthroned by steel ' and bullet, We have expressed a half-hearted disapproval and somnolently assured ourselves that such things could not happen here--1 It is true that our people have not been butchered nor tortured. Musso--1 linl, Hitler and Dolll'uss were some-, ; what crude in their methods; mass murder, even when disguised as “executions,” is a two-edged weapon,! ; and apt, as Dollfuss found, to recoil upon the user. When the history of this decade is written it will be Interesting to compare the methods followed by foreign Fascists with those 1 adopted in New Zealand. Hitler’s attack was open and direct, albeit crude and violent. Under the guise of .“planning,” our own would-be Hitlers have been more diplomatic. ; Restrictions after restrictions have been imposed upon our liberties, provoking merely a feeble protest from a public bewildered by economic stress, and the specious reasons given. Our road transport has been placed under what is virtually a dictatorship, thinly camoullaged, resulting in the hardship and injustice inseparable from bureaucratic control. The remedy for overlapping and unfair competition with the railways, too simple and , equitable to merit the consideration of ; “planners,” is obviously, that the ; user of the road should be compelled ; to pay for its construction and main- | tenance. ! The control of our monetary system has been handed over to what is in ; effect a private monopoly. True, the ' Reserve Bank, by an illuminating ; illustration of “costless credit crea- : tion,” extricated the Government from 1 the awkward predicament into which ; their pegged exchange policy, accom- | panied by the indemnity to the banks, j 1 had landed them. That and the resulting reduction of the publio debt by £20,000,000 announced with such | complacency by the Acting Finance 1 Minister in the Budget, will not be for- ■ gotten by currency reformers. It will, however, have been dearly bought at 1 the cost of financial servitude. When : the monetary systems are indissolubly linked together, probably by a pre--1 election loan which will embrace all the Dominions, a loan secured by the 1 hypothecation and merging of their 1 several monetary systems into one

Imperial system, from which no unit, be it Britain or New Zealand, can withdraw without the concurrence of all. The way Is then clear for the linking up of every country through its Reserve Bank, and the British Empire through the Bank of England, with the Bank of International Settlements, on a universal monetary basis, probably gold. Those who think that If this plan is carried out we can still free ourselves from foreign monetary ■bondage by a change of Government! and repeal of the Reserve Bank Act, or drastic amendment thereof, would do well to ponder long and carefully In view of the position created by the passing of the Colonial Stocks Act and the power of veto exeroisable thereby over Dominion legislation by Britain, where such legislation conflicts with the Interests of British bondholders. The next milestone on the road to Fascism was the passing of the Agricultural Emergency Powers Act. Those who have not yet studied this Aot and its connection with the Dairy Commission’s report would be wise to do so. They may then realise that cooperative development—nay, the future of the dairy Industry Itself —Is at the mercy of another set of politically appointed bureaucrats, responsible neither to tho Industry nor to Parliament. The “Mortgage Corporation" and Its offspring, “The Rural Mortgagors Final Adjustment Aot," are tho logical descendants of the Reserve Bank, and carry out tho monetary policy envisaged by its progenitors. The Mortgage Corporation swallows Hie last shred of effective control exercisable by the Stale over the credit system of this country. The Mortgagors Adjustment Act provides the machinery for oxlraollng the last sixpence from the luckless farmer mortgagor. It would seem that the process is nearly completed; what remains to transform New Zealand into a Fascist State, with Its own pinchbeck Hitler, will doubtless be given effect to If the present Government are returned to power. When Messrs Coates and Forbes return from England with their electoral plan of campaign, I venture to predict that It will Include a big loan from Britain, with perhaps certain subsidiary emigration finance proposals; some relaxation of tho restrictions upon our exports to Britain, allowing room for further expansion; and some further small readjustment of our tariff against British goods. Tho farmers’ vote may be secured by hope of freer markets in Britain, Hie labourers’ and sliopkkeepers’ vote by ..y-v S „L* I .... I_ 1. .1 ! 1 I

promise of lavish loan expenditure. Doubtless our love of Home and patriotism wilt be prostituted by the usual electioneering llag-waggers. Will New Zealanders soil their birthright and their children’s heritage for this dubious moss of potiage? if we do, then wo may write "finis" lo even (lie shadow of democracy with which, we still delude ourselves, in Hie generations to come, when our children’s children study the history of this age, lliey will ponder with pitying contemn! over our apathetic relinquishment of our heritage, a heritage redeemed and paid for by them as of old.—l am, etc., J. H. FURNISS. lUtawtiro, June 5, JJ3S.