My Country Notebook

Otago Witness, Issue 4030, 9 June 1931, Page 34

My Country Notebook

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Murihiku.

( Special fob the Otago Witness. )

Another Winter Show has come and gone, and we will remember the 1931 as a .real winter show. It is many years since .we have seen the Octagon looking like a Christmas card with snow all around Robert Burns’s statue and even lying thickly on his bared head. In this modern Dunedin of ours a snowstorm does not make the muddy slush of thirty years ago. From the asphalted streets the snow streams away down the gutters instead of being churned up into the good oldfashioned mud.

In George street there was an amusing scene. About noon, when the snow had partially melted, and when the mechanical sweeper had pushed what was left into the water-tables, a corporation lorry, driven by one man and loaded by three others, made a very gallant attempt to get a load of snow. But as fast as the shovellers threw the slush into the body of the lorry, the water streamed out every crack in the bottom! While I was waiting for a tram the load, although constantly being added to, got smaller and smaller. It certainly looked as if, work as they would, the gallant snowgatherers would never get a full load. Of course, the men may have been relief workers, and perhaps shovelling half-melted snow does not do anyone much harm, though it certainly does not appear to do anyone much good.

One man I met on Tuesday morning was getting away back home. He has been in the habit of coming to town during Show Week and “ making a week of it,” as he himself expressed it. Now, .instead of breaking down a substantial cheque, he was in to the stock agents to arrange for food to see him through the coming winter. He told me that he would have been away sooner, but there were many just like him, and he had to wait his turn with the accountant. This is only one instance of the straits many high-country men are in.

I loved to see the boys and girls leading their exhibits round in the calf competition. They wore so serious—it did one good to watch them. The winner was very bueked when the Minister of Agriculture asked for a good view of the calf’s face and head. The proud young owner displayed his calf’s points as if the beast had been a Royal Show* champion. This is the best work the society is doing—encouraging the hoys and girls to take a practical interest in the real affairs of the farm. And we are beginning to see that onlj’ if we have a nation of prosperous farmers can the cities of New Zealand exist at all.

Time after time it has been pointed out in this column that if the national income decreases, and if everyone on salaries and wages wants as much as he got in times when the national income was high, then some people would have to go without. That is why we have our unemployed. The reductions in civil servants’ salaries and the present reduction in Arbitration Court rates will all help to ease the position. Of course there will be injustice and inequalities, but they are inseparable from-any movement either up or down, either for good or bad —that affects each individual in a nation.

Things in the shops are cheaper, and they will get cheaper still. The shop keeper Will have to turn oyer his goods —or go out of business. Those who had big stocks, of course, will lose most

money. Those who had short stocks and who buy in now will not lose so much. Every farmer knows that. He who was overstocked when the slump in sheep came is the heaviest loser. He who was understocked bought in very cheaply. So it is with the merchant. V The wages cost of. anything is the heaviest cost. It is not the amount of wool in a suit that makes tailor-made suits dear—it is the tailors’ wages; it is not dear wheat which makes bread dear, it is the millers, bakers, and delivery man’s wages; it is not the value of the tree standing in the bush that makes houses dear, it is the sawmillers, transporters, and carpenters’ wages that bump up the costs and make houses and rents high. The high rate of wages right through industry—quite all right in prosperous years—increased the cost of houses, and those who are paying houses off on long-term plans have to pay more in interest because of the high cost of the house. We cannot close our eyes to these facts.

A political friend of mine, who is also an accountant, has sent me an analysis of the voting for the different parties in the Hauraki by-election. In each case he deals only with valid votes cast, and ignores the informal ones. The Country Party did not run a man in 1928, so they upset the figures a little. Also there was no licensing poll, so though there were more names on the roll this year, less people voted. Bearing those points in mind, let us look at the comparative figures:—

If we turn those figures into percentages we find that, leaving out the Country Party—for you cannot compare their 1931 figures with nothing in 1928—we find that on a percentage basis Reform makes easily the most improved showing.—

Bearing in mind all the time that the Country Party took farming votes, mostly off the Reform Party, it is interesting to state another way the increases or decreases in the 1931 vote compared with 1928:—

These figures show perhaps better than anything else, the slump in the United Party stocks. And the fact also emerges that no matter what the older political parties do to ensure a straight-out run between Labour and anti-Labour, they cannot stop third parties—like the Country Party—butting in, aiid they cannot stop Independents running either.

1928 1931 Reform .. 3826 4023 United . . . . .. 2935 997 Labour .. 2411 2599 Country . . 513

1928 per cent. 1931 per cent Reform . . 41.71 49.48 United . . 32.00 12.26 Labour . . 26.29 31.96 Country . . . — 6.30

Reform 7.77 per cent. increase United . . 19.74 per cent. decrease Labour 5.G7 per cent. increase