"THIS FREEDOM"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 130, 25 January 1932, Page 2

"THIS FREEDOM"

IRON1 CAL CGM M 5NT OPERATION OF MR. LANG'S NEW TRANSPORT ,S; ACT. CHARLES ST.UART OUTMODED. Th© operation of Mr. Lang's,latest measure, the New South Wales Transport A.ct, which prohibits the carrytng of passengers in private vehicles, has c.aused considerable opposition in |he State. Several Victorian commercial motor vehicle operators, who have been Oireatened with prosecution for breaches of the Act, intend to test the validity of the law in the . courts. They hope to show that the new Act cannot he made applicable to interstate traffic. This action will be taken as soon as the first prosecution is launched by the N.S.W. Government against yehicle owners. The test will be backed by the Chamber of Automotive Industries, the Motor Users' Association, and other organisations. "Charles Stuart may have extorted unfair taxation from the merchants of London, hut at least he did not stop their carriages to see whether their friends who rode with them were paying for the oats. "The complaints of niotor'ists that their cars are being stopped by a newiy7organised Cheka of ' railway-ppr-t'ers and tram-guards, and searched for paying passengers and boots unsfamped with the State of manufacture, sh*w that the Lang Government 1 has out-moded Charles. "The freedom for which our fathers b'led," a phrase much in use among Democrats, Soeialists, Communists and speakers at Empire Day celebrations, "broadens down," as the late Poet Laureate says, "from precedent to ; precedent," until, when we sum it up it emerges as the right to pay taxes . and to join a union. Its Possibilities. "A Government which allows -a railway porter to act as a member of the. 1 secret police to stop and overhaiil ! motor cars has not far to go before it I organises the waiters in the Parliamentary and railway dining-rooms to enter the houses of its subjects and make inquiries about the contents of the dinner-waggon. Was that beef killed and dressed by union labour ? Why has not that raisin been stamped by the retailer with the State of oyigin in a device at least two inches lohg by one in depth? "In the Arbitration Bill, which was to hand over the control of everything to a gang of union bosses, it was provided that this inspectorial inquisition should apply to the casual gardener and the housemaid and cook-general and lady help. A seedy-looking man with a red tie would suddenly appear at the door of the "neat semi-det. b. cott., all off, and conv.," and pushing past the maid or the daughter of the house who opened the door, demand a muster of the occupants. A. stopwork meeting of the maid, the gardener, and the cook would then he harangued by this great man, arid any grievances ventilated with a view to prosecution of the householder. "When Koseiusko Fell." "The next step, now that a private motor car is subject to inspection, will doubtless be the invasion of the Englishman's home, which used to be his castle, on a search for the sly-lodger, who, disguised as a member of the family, has actually been paying board, thus evading the provisions of the Registration of Boarding Houses Act. "It is on record that "Freedom shrieked when Iiosciusko fell." In New South Wales she has been criminally assaulted too often by the Lang Government to worry about shrieking at each new attack. _ As eels grow used to being skinned, so has she grown used to outrage. "That, no doubt, is why the railway employees who are doing Cheka work on the Victorian border have not had to lay any charges of "resistin' and tearin- me uniform." The spirit of Eureka Stockade has long ago departed. "It is fine to see a Government which has an objective and goes straight to it, even if that objective be a dictatorship and the ruin of the State. Nobody can accuse the present Government and the forces behind it of faltering. It discourages, in the course of its attempts at supreme power over a race of helots, and at making the world safe for Communists and union bosses, the entry of tpurists with subversive ideas, and capital from the foi'eign lands adjacent to its borders. At the same time, while showing the utmost determination to prevent such vile creatures as : Victorians from spending any of their blood-stained money in this State, the Government welcomes anybody coming on foot, and asking for the dole, which is instantly granted. "In the meantime, let us all arise and sing an Ode to Liberty, written by the organising secretary of the Poets' Union."