PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21200, 24 August 1940, Page 9

PUBLIC OPINION

As expressed by correspondents whose letters are welcome, but for whose views we have no respon- | sibility. Correspondents are requested to write h. ink. It is i essential that anonymous writers i enclose their proper names as a guarantee of good faith. Unless l this rule is complied with, their j letters will not appear. ! DEFENCE OF LIBERTY | (To the Editor) | Sir, —The creed to which I adhere must be defended, especially at this juncture, more than ever against the inroads of Socialism. It is the liberation of the individual from, external restraints and the realisation . of the positive development involved • in the idea of true citizenship. ; Individual reality is impossible under Socialism, because Socialism reflects in its very worst form, control. intervention, force and interference. Socialism, however, is merely the last term in a development. Consequents this grim, repulsive thing will smash itself on the solid rock of its own internal contra- ; dictions. After the storm, the dawn—people ; in free association, who “ regulate *’ their affairs, for every kind of ac- [ tivity, by means of voluntary contracts, amendable after notice. These j voluntary associations will be based : on the exercise of reciprocity and ! equal liberty. Socialism subjects ; all institutions and individuals to j control by virtue of forced contracts. ■ Hence we must defend every form of i liberty, including the right of education, free speech, publication and association.—l am, etc., HARRY WOODRUFFE. Auckland. August 22, 1940. WAGES, PRICES, INFLATION (To the Editor) Sir, —Mr W. P. Kenah, in the Times of August 21, has a lot to say on the question of wages, prices and | inflation. As “ a thinking man ”he might oblige us with a definition of what Douglas Credit is. From his letter one would think Social Credit was some kind of Chinese puzzle instead of a practical Christian system of economics, implemented by a scientific and publicly - controlled monetary system based on the national productive capacity. Your correspondent mentions the ! £30,000,000 overdraft from the Rej serve Bank as being the direct i cause of rising prices. The Govj ernment claims to have control of i prices and has wisely rationed some j lines in the interests of fair play. I The money issued by the Reserve ! Bank is probably all cancelled out of ! existence long ago by enabling ; tradesmen and manufacturers to rei pay their private overdrafts to the j banking system. We have assets to the tune of £30,000,000 upon which the Reserve Bank claims it is entitled to draw interest in perpetuity. We of the Social Credit persuasion combat the right of the bank to threaten the economic life of the country by an imaginary debt, and i hold that it is the “ collective ” in- ! dustry of the country that makes ! public works possible, and therefore j all these works upon completion j should be credited to a national capii tal account. The expenditure of i £30,000,000 under New Zealand con- ; ditions must have produced assets of i the same valuation under the same j conditions. Bearing in mind that the real ' credit of the country is communal and j that certain expenditure has produced equivalent assets to balance, ; how can there be any debt? Why drag Russia in as a red herring across j the trail? New Zealand will be | judged on the results achieved. We : must paddle our own canoe, always i remembering that the spiritual and | material welfare of our own Do- ! minion is the first consideration.— I I am, etc., R. G. YOUNG. Gordonton, August 21.

GOVERNMENT POLICY (To the Editor) Sir, —I got very little sleep last night after reading Messrs Woodruffe’s and Kenah’s letters through their anticipation of the disaster that is going to overtake this country through the socialistic legislation enacted by the present Labour Government. One thing that I quite agreed with Mr Kenah on was the housing scheme of the Government, which certainly is wrong. I used some time back to hawk fruit out Te Hoe and Patetonga way when the last “ sane ” Government was in power, and used to admire the beautiful miles of tents there, used for housing the workers, most esi pecially in the winter timp. But now, j sad to say, since this Government : has come into power these places are 1 deserted and remind me of Oliver 1 Goldsmith’s “ Deserted Village.” ; This Government has taken the , workers away from there and put j them in four, five and six-roomed I up-to-date houses, which will cer- ! tainly bring disaster in its wake. And i another thing the Government seems ! to be bent on is giving the workers i enough to eat. Did anyone ever hear the like? I might state in agreeing with Mr Kenah that the private trading banks have, I think, about £80,000,000 of deposits, and the Post Office Savings I Bank generally has about the same, j say £70,000,000, besides the private

j savings banks, say about £20,000,000. j The Auckland Savings Bank has I alone £10,000.000 —say a total sum of • £170,000,000, with less than £3,000,j 000 of gold to back it up. Yet the • ordinary people go about unconcerned | and oblivious of the terrible disaster ' that is in store for them and say this is the best Government they have ever had. “ Poor souls with stunted vision,” etc. And there is that wretched Churchill Government in the Old Country carrying on the war without any gold at all. It sent it over to be buried in Texas. About Russia, I thought they had i all starved to death, from reading I the correspondence. I used to get , the Moscow News, but since the inj vasion of France I have not had any, j so concluded the last Russian had ; died of starvation. According to ; Whitaker’s Almanac, which of course cannot be believed, Russia produced more grain than India, with double its population, and more than China, with treble its population, and they export very little of it. According to the same auth- : ority the rouble is worth about lOd in i English money, and Is in New Zea- ! land money, but I know now that that cannot be right.—l am, etc., W. B. McMANUS Matamata, August 20.