MATERIALISM "DRY ROT"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 127, 15 June 1937, Page 13

MATERIALISM "DRY ROT"

-Own OorfespeHdentJ

Effects of Sociaiism in New Zcvaiand FREEDOM OF SPEECH

(By Telegraph-

AUCKLAND, Last Night. Ffeedom had been iitehed from. the people of New Zealand so rapidly that they Bearcely yst fealised that they rnight only live new by license, deelaw ed Mr. F. W. Doidge, when he addressod abont 60 electors at Howick on behalf of the National party. He claimed that Sociaiism was the vital point on which the.outcome of the next generai election would hinge. "Those who read the oliicial organ of the Government will have been interested in the views expressed on this subject. Equality is to be the battle cry— nothing but equality of wages, salaries and incomes will satisfy the all-red Socialdst in New Zealand. " How many people, he asked, had read carefully the platform of the Socialist Party to which every member of the present Government was pledgedl its iirst avowed objective was socialisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange. "Towar.ds its ultixnate attaininent the Government haa already progressed a long way, ' ' he said. "The Kessrve Hank is now the plaything of the politicians j the great dairying industry is under complete political control; tranaport and similar services operate at the whim of a Ministerj th© Industrial Efiiciency Act places ihdustry in the hol iow of a Minister 's hand. "Men may only buy and sell by licence and no man may hold a job without a Jacence, in the form of compuleory trade union membership. The Government seeks to create a servile mass mind. Preedom of speech} freedom over the airj Ireedom ;of. tho j/resB all are threatened. The Niagara of legiBiation which has descended upon us smce the Socialist Government took othce has ieft us nuiueed and bewil dered. • ' bocialasin had: its genesis in the elder countries of Europe. Its operation was never contemplated in an environment such as ours and. in the older countries it has proved lmpracticable. Rassia, after 20 years, is the glaring exampie. The creed of equality haa been abandone.d in ftussia. The editoi of lzvestia the chief fcioviet newspaper, receives a saiary of 30,000 roubles a inonth. The janitor in the same ouiiding gets lbu roubles a month, and rc is as true to-day, as it was 20 years ugo, that ftusBia ls the oue country in fiUrope where the mass of people are slaves. "What would happeu in Russia ii men dared to go on strike, as did the workers at Westfield recentiytf They would promptly be set against a wali and shot. "The ideals of the Nationalist Party are as high as those of any other party. The Nationalist Party firmly, beiieves that the aim of all honest political endeavour should be the xaising of the standard of life. It is fair to point out tiiat the cult of materialism has its home in Socialist and Communist countries— countries which have no room for Ckristianity. Materialism is a dry rot m the soeial fabric. There is need for an active crusade against materialism in New Zealand to-day." He added that it was unfortunate that the National Party had to preach would be an attractive one, composed torat© which was just reco'vering from a year of political intoxication. It had to expose the fallacy that there was an easy xoad to prosperity by way of political magic. , The first job of the National Party was to expose the weaknesses of the Government yol'icy; then to produce an altemative, In accordance with the constitution of the party, executives throughout the Dominion had been privileged to submit policy • proposals for the consideration of the leader, At the time be cOnsidej-ed opportune, the leader of the party would make a policy declaration. That programme would be an attractive one, composed sensibly and sympathetically, . to meet the exigencies of thh strange times in which people lived, but the framework on which the whole policy was built would be freedom of initiative aud freedom of enterprise.