Dear Sir,

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 98, 24 February 1947, Page 4

Dear Sir,

Letters to the Editor must be clearly written on one side of the paper only and where a nom-de-plume is used the name of the writer must be included for reference purposes. The Editor reserves the right to abridge, amend or withhold any letter or letters.

BUILDING SECTIONS Sir, —We would like to protest through your paper at the inefficiency of the Land Sales Act which was supposedly brought in to help soldiers. Seven months ago we contracted to buy some sections in Bracken Street. Firstly there was no end of delay in obtaining a hearing before the Land Sales Committee which would allow only £6o' per quarter acre section for which we were prepared to pay £IOO. An appeal was then made to the Land Sales Court which was to hear the case on the 13th December last and finally got down to business on the 14th February. The court, after hearing the appeal, gave a decision against the appeal within five minutes of hearing the last evidence. The only favourable comment the Judge made was about the work of the Land Sales Committee.

Seven months of humbug and delay is all we get and still we cannot get our sections. Here we have the opportunity of buying really good 1 acre sections only five minutes walk from the Strand but cannot buy them because a Government Valuer says they are only worth £6O whereas he places £9O on sections in Bridge Street some two miles away from the Strand. We are the ones who have to pay the price and we claim the right to select our. home site wherever it suits us best. Mr Webb, the Government Valuer, stated in his evidence that sections like these the same distance from the centre of Tauranga were worth £350 to £4OO. All this trouble, expense and injustice because a bit of land less than f of an acre privately owned which we are told cost them about £32 10 or 12 years ago is required to connect the Harbour Board road across the mudflat to Bracken Strett; a paltry 7 chains. These owners are not farming or residing on this lhnd.

We see no justice or commonsense in this socialistic piece of legislation, and we hope the Borough Council, the Harbour Board, the Chamber of Commerce and the Returned Servicemens’ Association will wake up and get into action and demand something be done before young people wanting hom'es for their young wives and children leave the district in disgust. It is well known to all local residents that building sites are difficult to procure. The Land Sales Court by its decision is simply making subdivision impossible, and holding up the progress of the town. If the Local Bodies and business people don’t do something at once then we homeless soldiers will know we are not wanted in Whakatane.

Signed: C. J. HOOPER C. G. SMITH E. F. SMITH (.Ist N.Z.E.F.) H. F. MOLE B. L. MOLE R. E. THOMPSON J. CURTIS N. HILLS N. R. LOVELL. ADMIRAL BYRD AND SOCIAL CREDIT

Sir, —I was greatly struck by Admiral Byrd’s appeal for the peace of the future. (With the exception of those ‘Buts’ that ‘butt in’ to make the Christian philosophy of Christian endeavour a mockery the present controllers of the U.N.0.) He continues: There are various philosophies abroad in the world today, which aim to cure the world’s ills by a rearrangement of the existing order. But we need a new factor—a new spirit in human nature itself. Therefore we should give special priority to any agency which shows promise on a world scale of bringing this about. This might truly be called “Social Credit,” to which I will refer later. He (Admiral Byrd) refers to a world force in the making of the old truths of Christianity militant in this ideological era. It is the fight of every man who wants freedom. “Social Credit” is just such a methed, which comprehends the relation between physical and industrial science, economics and politics/ By the accidents and necessities of its development as a social dynamic, Social Credit has come to

be widely and superficially identified with monetary reform, until recently. Now, however, a renewed interest in the fundamentals. of Social Credit is becoming more apparent. The materialist delirium is passing; everywhere men are looking for a re-birth of those spiritual realities which underlay the great achievements of civilisation. We have now arrived at a position where we can effect a complete interchange of ideas and results between the two sciences of economics (the Christian ethics of economic freedom; or the pagan ethics of a despotic economy, “debt slavery”). It is certain that a solution is to be found in the new method of approach, and we may be sure that as the tide of our disasters is turned, the great conceptions embodied in Social Credit will come to fruition. Yours etc., W. BRADSHAW.