PLAYING "BOGEY MAN"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 690, 16 November 1933, Page 6

PLAYING "BOGEY MAN"

(To the Editor) Sir,— I was quite interested in reading your leading article in yesterday's issue of the "Morning Post." "Playing Bogey Men." It recalled. to me very vividly my childhood days when ill-iadvised nurses and many mothers resorted to the services of the "Bogey Man" (or woman) to frighten their naughty little ones into submission and obedience. For all sorts of petty misdemeanours I was threatened with a visit from "Biddy Borders." When th'e white apparition made its appearance I was fairly distracted with terror, and sufferted m'any sleepless nights until, as I advanced in years, I plucked up courage and tore off the white shroud and found out that "Biddy" was none other than a stupid domestic servant. That custom wias thoughtless and cruel in the extreme and I trust never now resorted' to in New Zealand. Now it happened that in briefly speaking to the resolution entrusted to me at Mr. Atmore's meeting I referred to th'e audience as grown up children as regards money (myself included) : thus the other feature of your "Bogey pic'ture is eomplete. iSurely, sir, it must be recognised that if Mr. Atmore may he character- ' ised as playing the "Bogey Man" then are we to conclude that all the other brilliant intelligence from whose writings he quoted so freely were likewise playing "The Bogey Man." May I however, respectfully submit that the large and earnest audi-

ence of Rotorua electors and citizens are not to be hush-hushed by any sort of "Bogey Man" antics. Instead, they have tom off the widing sheet of iethargy, apathy, and indifference and have learned some of the truth about modern banking, money and credit, and discovered that' the name of the real active "Bogey Man" is "Banks". As to melodramatics, and as to the truth of the statements made by him, and the wealth of support to those same by financial and economic experts (including Lord BledisloeL I leave the reply to those ■ your strietures to Mr. Atmore. To me and to that large audience the effort made it abundantly clear and convincing that the private banks have captured and used the monopoly of making money in the form of notes and credit and have unduly res'tricted the issue thereof, to the detriment of production, business industry and individual needs, and thereby caused universal and untold misery and hurt. They have usurped the functions of the State. The existing private monopoly used for individual enrichment, should now cease and be transferred to the State, as an urgent social service for the relief and benefit of the whole of the people. Furthermore, the granting of a modest, safe-guarded, national dividend is surely an equitable and overdue adjustment and the truly eff ective means :to immediately restore the purchasing and consuming power of all classes- of folk and thereby once more set the wheels of industry and business quickly revolving: It would heal the broken hearts and dispairing thousands throughout this land, and thereby confirm them in their belief of "Thy Kingdom Come," in the near future, and "Thy will be done" here and now. No, sir, I prefer to think of Mr. Atmore and other such like exponents, not as a "Bogey Man" but as a seasonable "Canta Claus." — I am, etc., JOHN MITCHELL. Lytton Street, Rotorua, 15/11/33.