NEW ZEALAND & AUSTRALIAN TRADESMEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 3, 4 July 1939, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND & AUSTRALIAN TRADESMEN

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Mr, Montague Williams's letter of Monday's edition leaves me just a little more interested. In the, first place, Mr. Williams, as a worker, does1 not evince much faith in Labour Governments. He cites the failure of sev-; eral, and predicts the failure of the present Labour Government in New j Zealand. He says: "In my humble! opinion I sincerely hope that my theory is wrong." At least he is not sure, and j there is room for doubt. Here are the facts as I see them. Labour Governments, unions, and capital always have something just'a little different that is not easy to readily assimilatei These sometimes painful incidents are merely the mile- j

stones'in the general enlightenment of mankind. Who can gainsay, the fact that the whole social structure of England, for instance, has not been raised in the last hundred year?, and. with the unionism? The United States has social security payment by the. work-' er?; the leaders recognise that the strength of the nation lies in the people's welVbeiug- I have been in business twice myself, and am fully conversant with the economic "see^ saw" between •, -nployer and employee. The parallel between Australia and ;New Zealand is totally distinct, Australia is a large continent with a wonderful future of development, pro^ babiy one of the world's coming nations, Pespite the social legislation in Australia, economic competition still rules keen, and is growing keener, naturally pinching many of the workers, who are not astute, As regards New Zealand there is no doubt that the present Government has made mistakes, Who doesn't? But it has at least shown more sagacity jthan the Lang Government, morel tangible results, The payments tv the Australian artisan's wives should have been arranged to be paid in Sydney, before they left; the New Zealand Gov* ernment could have allotted them m much there, As it is, all wish to send money out of the country, and the Australians are not alone in this respect, I have *een runs on the Stock Ex* change; the small fry thought the bettorn was going to fall out, and a selling wave results, Your correspondent may possibly be disappointed, I have been that way myself in ether countries; but the fact remains that be was assisted, and is still indebted to. the Labour Government of New Zealand. —I am, etc., Q.W.H.

(Te the SUiter,)

Sir, —Mr. Williams has revealed him^ self in his true colours; not only as a worker trying to make good in $ new country, but as a would*be politician, determined to let ns know how we should run our country, And that after accepting the hospitality and generosity of our Government! Well, Sir, I have no intention of em tering into a political controversy with any of your correspondents, So Mr, William? has lost his bait. My time is more valuable to m§ than to reply* ing to such statement?. I feel gure your correspondent's time could be taken up more valuably Informing the Australian Government how to manage Australia,—l am, etc,

TOSH G'RIIkkY,