NATURAL SOCIALISM

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21245, 16 October 1940, Page 9

NATURAL SOCIALISM

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I took a clipping of the letter by Mr W. B. McManus, but put it away so carefully that I now cannot find it! I must rely on memory. From American papers of the movement I support, which has a great following, especially in the British Empire and U.S.A., I have read a lot about the speculators named by Mr McManus, also of Jay Gould, the Astors and others.

Under Natural Socialism, railways will not be likely to be privatelyowned, but where any service like that is so owned, then the holders | will pay the full annual social value | attaching to every bit of land they \ hold into the public treasury. Exit j the schemes Mr McManus refers to, ! and which in fact did occur. Simi- ! lar things happened in New Zea- ; land, with the old privately-owned j Manawatu line. Also, numerous “ political railways ” were built by the State here, especially when the squatters ruled the country, to en- ; able private holders of land to skim j off all the social values cream, leav- : ing the people to pay taxes on the ! loans. Electric lifts in buildings are vertical railways, and they are run free to users, being paid for by the extra ' rental a building so equipped will 1 bring. When we collect the full ( annual social values or economic rent j of land, we shall be able to run the ! railways free to users, the cost be- J ing recouped, like that of the lifts, ! by the higher social value “ attach- j ing ” to land so served. I appre- i date the great breadth of the read- j ing displayed in the letters by Mr i McManus, and when his depth equals ' his breadth he will be a real broth ' of a boy in the social reform world. ! I gathered the impression that Mr j McManus thought the existence of i ground rent a detriment, though I may have mistaken his meaning there. However, the higher the social values the better, for they are the natural, automatic and accurate measure of the net social progress made. The higher they are the better. The harm comes in the private appropriation of them, not in their height, which under free conditions must always be about market value. As to “ profits,” well, all “ values in exchange ” are labour values; either individual or social wages; usury, as distinct from dividends, like tariffs, being but an excrescence due to “ the mother of all monopolies,” as the economics of history j shows. When Mr McManus has grasped the'lull implications of the Natural Socialism policy, I doubt if he will find much for objection. He is bold, wide-sweeping, and all he needs to do is to dig a little deeper. —I am, etc., T. E. McMILLAN. Matamata, October 14.

PETROL AND POLITICS (To the Editor) Sir,- In reply lo the statement! made by Mr E. P. Meachen, Govern- i merit member for Marlborough, in • your issue, October 10, the New Zea- j iand Motor Trade Federation wishes ! to make it perfectly clear that its j authority for the statements made j by Mr Meachen in the House of Re- ; preservatives was the report as pub- i , iished in the Evening Post on Octo- | 1 ber 4. One would be entitled to \ assume that Mr Meachen read the | newspaper report, and if it was cor- \ reel, then he surely had the oppor- j tunny of making a correction. j We have no desire whatever to j enter into a debate with Mr Meachen ! in the question of twisting tails, ; whether it be the tails of lions or ever, like to say that one by one the tales that have been told as to the : reasons for the extremely severe : petrol restrictions in New Zealand have been satisfactorily disposed of • by me statements made by the Motor j Trade Federation. We would like to stress once again ] that the New Zealand Motor Trade j Federation has not at any time ques- j tioned the desirability of the con- J servation of petrol supplies or the j imposition of a reasonable rationing scheme. Mr Meachen seems to . overlook the fact that the major oil I companies alone are responsible for j

the importation and the bulk storage of all the petrol that is being carried in the Dominion, and it is a tribute to their desire to assist the Empire war effort that they are willing to carry a much larger stock of petrol at their own cost than they would do under normal trading conditions. On the question of petrol for aeroplanes, it is evident that Mr Meachen has made further inquiries into the question of aviation spirit, and he now concedes the point that a much different quality of petrol is used for aeroplane engines than i for motor car engines. We agree ■ that this aviation petrol must be j paid for, but this is surely a charge j against our war expenditure, and in . point of fact the quantity involved ! is comparatively small as compared with the commercial and private usage of ordinary petrol throughout the Dominion.

There is no point in Mr Meachen’s statement about the abnormal hazards of tankers at sea in this part of the world, because in general there is no difficulty whatever in securing tanker space to bring petrol to New Zealand. We would again like to use Mr Meachen’s simile in regard to twisting tails. The Motor Trade Federation would like to know why it is necessary that the tail of the motorist and the motor industry in New Zealand should be twisted to a much greater degree in the matter of petrol rationing than Australia. South Africa, Canada, India. Fiji, and last, but not least, Great Britain itself. We have asked this question on numerous occasions and it has never yet been satisfactorily answered. The Motor Trade Federation can definitely assure Mr Meachen that the individuals as ;ociated with the motor industry in New Zealand are cl ing their full share in “grappling with the ravenous wolves of Europe. ' If a census were taken of the numbers of both employees and employers in the motor industry who have joined the three arms of the Services, we think it would bear favourable comparison with any other section of the community. Seeing that today we have in stock in New Zealand Bulk storage the amount of petrol which has been named by the Government as a satisfactory reserve stock, the Motor Trade Federation is of the opinion that the Government should at once implement its promise to increase

the petrol ration, there being now no ■ reason why this restoration should be j deferred until November.—l am, etc., CHARLES EDMOND. Wellington, October 11.