TO THE EDITOR

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 263, 24 November 1939, Page 2

TO THE EDITOR

TOO MANY SUCKERS Sir, —Alany motorists puzzle to know why there is a shortage of petrol, when they pay cash for tlieir supplies and while all the storage tanks in New Zealand are full and part of the cargo on board the tankers has to go on to Australia. , When talking to a petrol distributer one day, he said, “if you could spend a day at one of our distributing stations you would he surprised to see the number of motorists who present Government permits instead of paying cash for their petrol”.. Of course if we all paid cash .the distributors would not have stopped our credit. If we are not- paying for our petrol, fencing wire, roofing iron etc.,, the restrictions are understandable and if tho farmers fail to come, up to their usual output of produce, owing to the .shortage of farm working materials, it will also be understood. The Government seems to have unlimited money to squander in non-essen-tial works, hut perhaps this is part ot the great bankruptcy scheme-, lor pledging all property bringing about a general liquidation which will bring us all down to the same level, where the toilers and tho.se who think andl plan on our farms and in the towns, will have to sit on the same mat as the drunken wasters who seem to ho the first and special care of the •present Government. This class of communism was brought over from Australia. “SILLY- OLE FARMER.”

MORE SLAVERY WANTED Sir, —The Alinister of Agriculture has suggested that the farmers increase the output of dairy produce, hut his Government is still doing its inmost to lure help away from the farms. Recently men on Public Works were given a ri.se to £'4 10s. for a 40-hour week. The Alinister in charge then turned to the farmers and said, “now then”, the men. can leave my works and turn to farm work “if they wish”. For bitter biting sarcasm this would take some boating. Recently the. Government commandeered the roofing iron a Bay of Plenty Dairy • Company has obtained lor its suppliers’ use in covering their hay stacks 'during the coming harvest. That this incident passed off as: quietly as it did, was owing to the tact of the directors, who kept the news from their suppliers until the local ALL*, butted in to justify Government action. It was reported that the iron was wanted for workers’ residences, but probably it wa.s thought that the time was, opportune for notifying New Zealand that the communists Had! now got into their stride. The word communist is here used advisedly, tor oui best lexicographers define communism as “a state of things .in which there is no indlividual or separate rights to

property.” . Under these circumstances, tho farmers will be reluctantly compelled to produce less this season, even if they exceed their 80 hours a week, as suggested by the Minister of Agriculture. A WORM MAY Tl T l*N.