PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 130, Issue 21654, 14 February 1942, Page 9

PUBLIC OPINION

CURRENT VIEWPOINTS AIR RAID PRECAUTIONS (To the Editor) Sir.—l notice in a prominent Australian paper that a questionnaire submitted to 25 Brisbane householders selected at random from the telephone book revealed an appalling ignorance of what was expected of them in the event of an air raid. Eleven questions were answered with an alarming frankness, no attempt being made to conceal the fact that they had little or no knowledge of what to do when the siren sounds. The questions were very similar to those which could be asked our Hamilton householders, who no doubt in many cases have placed on their walls the Emergency Precautions Service sheet dealing with air raids. As it is quite possible that our citizens would show an equally lew percentage of satisfactory answers a similar Questionnaire put to them, owing to the neglect of studying these precautions, I suggest a similar limited ballot to be taken here in the interests of public efficiency and safety.—l am, etc., QUESTIONNAIRE. Hamilton, Feb. 13. FREEHOLD OF HOUSES (To the Editor) Sir.—And so the cat is out of the bag at last, for “when the National Party becomes the Government we arc going to give the occupant of every State house the opportunity of acquiring the freehold of the property,” said the Leader of the Opposition, Mr S. G. Holland, when speaking in the Hauraki by-election campaign. Well, some of us have suspected this move for some time and, as “Mr Holland’s declaration was greeted with applause,” apparently some people have fallen for it already and have shown how short the public memory really is. The trick does not even possess the merit of being new.

Over 40 years ago Seddon and John McKenzie brought down one of the finest systems of land settlement ever devised in a British community, whereby the man of small capital could get a start on the land and yet the State as trustee for the people retained the ownership. I refer to the L.I.P. Liberal legislation. But that did not suit the financial interests and their Tory party. An honest but unimaginative farmer, Mr W. F. Massey, was put into the leadership of the Opposition and began to promise the farmer-lease-holders the freehold. The combination of self-interest and stupidity was too strong. Six years after Seddon’s death the reactionaries were in power and proceeded to implement the freehold policy. Result, a wild boom in land values and a reckless succession of “paper mortgages.” A few shrewd financiers and speculators made fortunes and the genuine but misguided farmer in another 20 years found himself with impossible burdens, not a “freehold” but a “mortgagehold.” Now the same trick is to be worked over State houses. These State houses were intended to relieve the acute housing shortage and to provide decent homes for people whose occupations often involve transfers on promotion from one town to another.

It is possible, nay, probable, that self-interest plus stupidity will again triumph. Soldiers returning from the war with accumulated allotments and gratuities will compete with one another for these “freehold” homes. A wild boom will set in. Unscrupulous speculators will make fortunes out of house gambling and in the end the genuine householder will be left with an impossible burden—the “mortgagehold” again—and will be forced into bankruptcy. What an ideal combination selfinterest and stupidity make for the sordid financier and the unscrupulous politician or, sir, is it too much to hope that the people will not be fooled again?—l am, etc., SCRUTATOR Hamilton, Feb. 5.