COST OF SOCIALISM.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5427, 22 May 1929, Page 3

COST OF SOCIALISM.

THE QUEENSLAND DEBACLE.

REMARKABLE DISCLOSURES. Remarkable disclosures regarding Labour-Socialist rule have been made during the election campaign in Queensland, which terminated recently. Not the least striking of these relate to the State trading ventures, which at one time were a trump card in the Labour-Socialist policy, but Which nowadays receive less prominence. The story of the scheme embarked on some ten years ago as the beginning of a State food monopoly is an “eye-opener” to any who have been attracted by the glowing pictures painted by our own Labour-Socialists of the benefits to’be derived from the State’s interference in business. A New Utopia. The chief features of “the enterprise,”’ to quote the Brisbane Telegraph, were thus stated :— “State cattle and sheep raised on State stations, railed On State railways, to be treated at State abattoirs, and retailed from the State shops to the people. Direct from the Stateowned stations to the people will mean that all selling and buying commissions will be eliminated, the middleman will disappear, and all profits thus taken from these people and saved to the State will go to further cheapen the meat And for the extension of the meat-distributing scheme until the pinnacle of perfection in this regard is reached.” This rosy prospect has now had ten years in which to materialise. Miles of Fanns. The Labour-Socialist Party has gallantly stuck to its scheme, and it cannot be said that it has languished for want of money. State cattle stations in Queensland now occupy , 30,000 square miles of territory. They cover an area equal to one-third of the whole of Victoria and much greater than the whole of the island of Tasmaia. This is a tremendous area on which to raise cattle. One would expect that from a huge group of cattle stations of this nature the Queensland Government would have flooded the market with cheap beef. Two Ounces Per Year. But what actually has happened ? In the last financial year, to quote the "Telegraph,” the people obtained from their State-owned cattle stations 287 beasts for distribution through State shops, railed on State railways,, and so forth. The meat so retailed under “the most comprehensive food-hand-ling programme ever initiated in any part of the world” was sufficient to provide the people in a year with a fraction over two ounces per head of the population. “This tremendous Socialist performance,” comments the Brisbane paper, “was achieved at a loss for the year of £285,549. Every beast consumed by the people off their own stations cost the taxpayers an average loss of £930, and every pound of beef so supplied under this , scheme of unparalleled magnitude and ambition cost the men and women and children about £2.” Deficit of £1,000,000. Incidentally, there was a loss of approximately £lOOO per employee on the State-owned stations, and the accumulated deficits up to last June exceeded £1,000,000. It is an amazing story of folly and muddlement and waste ; the people paying the price for Socialistic experiments. The elections saw the reign of the LabourSocialists ended, but the electorates have been so jerrymandered under Labour-Socialist rule that a fair voting test is practically impossible.