STRAY NOTES.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 642, 17 June 1921, Page 10

STRAY NOTES .

(By “Don Quixote.”

Glancing through last Friday’s Times, I saw in the articles "Families and Prices,” the suggestion made that the Government should bear a hand in assisting financially parents with large families, and very rightly you ask where is the Government going to get the money from? No how about a-good substantial tax on the bachelor over thirty. At that age if he is going to marry at a)! it is high time he got a move on. The passing; of a few, more spokes in the wheel of time and it will not be a wife he wants but a nurse; and if he chooses to continue the gay butterfly existence of a giddy bachelor, it is only fair he should lend a helping hand to those who are the State’s greatest asset, the fathers and mothers of the rising generation.

Poor old Government! How ready we are to echo the parrot cry the “Government ought to do it,” The Government must build houses for the workers, or if times are hard and credit’s gone,, then it must keep down the* price of butter and-' flour, or should employers of labour have to tighten their purse strings and reduce the number of their workers, then the Government must find work at once for the u-neniployed and nice work too: and if thc-y claim, it is only an allevation measure and reduce the daily wage then there is --trouble about that.

Poor old Government! We all want something arid go with clamouring /voice and outstretched hand, demanding, "Give, give.'” Now Onewhero wants a lot of things, from a decent road to Tuakau, to a connection with with an up-to-date hydro-electric scheme,, so let us join the throng of needy seekers and shout with the loudest, give, give, “Alms for the love of Allah.”

1 wonder if.the Government shut up shop as far as donations to this and that wild cat scheme whether we should get busy and try and do it. for ourselves. Of course, it means taking our coats off and working a little harder;, but somehow I think we should be better for the effort.

Our Mr Massey is in. London., The “hub” of the Empire will have no longer an excuse for forgetting that portion of its periphery known as the Dominion of -New Zealand, The Prime Minister will doubtless return with a few financial sucks to keep the pot boiling..