CORRESPONDENCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4504, 13 September 1930, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

(To the Editor). Sir, —On reading the report of the meeting held to consider the unemployment question, I was much struck by the statement- of one speaker, who put the cause of unemployment down to the people spending money on luxuries. That statement makes me feel rude enough to say “rats.’ To people who are intelligent enough to think, know full well, that insane trafficking in land during and after the. war,. causing inflated values, was primarily responsible for the economic position to-day. Does that speaker know that during the last twelve months the Associated Banks of New sent to Australia the sum of ten million pounds for investment in Australian Gilt-edged Securities, thereby shortening that amount in circulation in this country. Is he aware that the act of the banks in increasing the rates on overdrafts at a critical period, went a. long way to crippling the secondary industries of this country, and is he aware that the' individual wealth of this country is over one thousand millions of money, and does he not know that those tvho are fortunate to have money, are investing it in gilt-edged securities. I like to hear an exchange of opinions providing the speakers know wallf they are talking about. 1 know full well his pet theme, “trade in Yankee cars,” but I .know also that I can go into shops and huv Yankee hats, braces and what nets, and also T can buy Italian hats, and other foreign goods. To load the gun against .America is too funny for words. Were this country self-sustaining, producing all its requirements from within, the same as America, the question would he worth a. thought; until then, wc cannot consider it. 1 know it hurts some people to see a son of toil riding to work or taking his family out for an airing in a ear, but- it hurts the driver more to know that lie has generally to do so in someone else’s left-off car, and what more, in some countries I could mime, a working man is not considered worthy of a job unless he has the means of rapid transit, and more to the point,' a worthy toiler. Of course 1 admit some indulge in luxuries —they even go to pictures sometimes —'hut I fail to see their names as members of the various Racing Clubs, Bowling 'Clubs and other institutions that, cater for the weary individual who would like to pull “Uncle Sam’s” whiskers. No. Sir, let every one of us get all the enjoyment we can out of life providing it is of a legitimate nature, and were the merchants of this country loyal to New Zealand there would be less soul abroad, especially for the ’Xmas trade. .Finally to that speaker I would say, we have passed the days of the feudal Barons, we live in a time when each individual can lflea.se himself, how he lives his life, providing its within the law; but to nut as the reason for unemployment down to those who are workless spending the money on luxuries is a sitting shot, at a shirtless hack, and hungry children. Yours, etc., E. G. MARTIN.