Citizens Say —

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 428, 9 August 1928, Page 8

Citizens Say

(To the Editor.)

THE FARMERS’ CASE Sir, The year 1926, with 752 bankruptcies, was a record for 39 years. 1927 saw 868 and, so far, 1928 is keeping’ well in the running. Each year since 1921 there have been more bankruptcies among farmers alone than there had been among the whole community for many single years previously, the total for five years (1922 to 1926) being 963. It is certain that many farmers walk off, or assign, for every one who goes through the court. Sir Harold Beauchamp is reported as saying that “not many farmers are poor,” as questioning “whether more than 10 or 15 per cent, of the farmers of the Dominion are in Queer Street” and yet as stating that “everywhere there are too many farmers content to work for a bare existence after paying interest on capital.’* He speaks of the great help being given farming and farmers, of the increased yield of dairying. He does not mention the increased expense of fertilisers, which produce the increased yield of dairying, nor is there any word of the increased rate of interest which led to an increased yield of bankruptcies. A. E. ROBINSON.

SOCIAL CONDITIONS Sir,— Tour correspondent the “Hermit of Great Barrier" may have re-read George, but he certainly has not assimilated him. George makes it very clear that if his system were applied the capitalist structure would collapse, the present system has for its foundation private ownership of land. Universal history shows that the land question is at the bottom of the social problem. Unemployment is not caused through the introduction of machinery I am confident that the abolition of private ownership of land must come. Phe abolition of the ownership of human beings in America was not brought about until a great nation divided in two and life and property were ruthlessly sacrificed. Let us wjn C i iat ,? c reform I have mentioned will be a bloodless one. HERBERT MULVIHILL. THE MF.IKLE CASE Sir.— I desire to contradict a statement made m a report which appeared in * he bun concerning my 40 years’ fight for reparation for wrongful conviction lm P rlson m e nt for sheep-stealing in * * ls that a document in the archives of Parliament shows that m return for a loan of £33 I promised to pay F. W. Oakley £4OO out of mv payments from the State. The sworn declaration of Oakley shows that this is quite untrue. The position is that m May, 1906, I gave Oakley a promissory note for £ 33. In July he became bankrupt. Payment to me of compensation and costs had been recommended by a Parliamentary Committee, and, being sorry for Oakley in the position he found himself, I offered that

if 1 got the sum recommended I would lend him £4OO to start him again. There was no connection between the £33 and the £4OO. I would like to point out that at my trial there was no question raised as to my character. Had it not been for political influences I would have received the compensation I am entitled to, and which has been placed on the Parliamentary Estimates again and again. The Meikle Acquittal Bill, the only acquittal Bill passed in the British Empire, was passed and my character cleared in 190 S. JOHN MEIKLE.

AGAINST DAYLIGHT SAVING Sir,— I read of a meeting held in Auckland, and representative of ten different sports bodies, upholding daylight saving, and clamouring for a renewal again this year. That is the whole trouble. About all it does benefit is sport. I am employed in a local picture theatre and after experiencing the slack period last year during this daylight saving trial there is nothing surer than that with its renewal I shall lose my job, and several others employed in different theatres —personal friends, of mine (which places me in a position to speak for them) —will also be dismissed. It will be the same with retail shops and restaurants. Business suffered badly during the last trial, but we were kept in employment in the hope that it would pick up; but now, after experiencing one daylight saving period, and in the event of it coming again, our employers will certainly be prepared and cut down right from the start. Which is more important, daylight saving for the sports, or keep us breadwinners in a job? I will leave the answer to the general intelligent public. ANTI-SIDE Y. MR. A. HALL SKELTON DECLINES Sir, — It is with the greatest regret that I must withdraw from nomination for Roskill. I have been inundated with requests to stand from friends and foes, from the electorate and throughout New Zealend. Offers of substantial sums far more than I should require for expenses have been made from friends, many of whom were my strong opponents of previous years Without egotism my mission was for lo years back to educate the masses on “The Land Question.” The work has been very well completed as the Dominion is fully alive to the absolute necessity of promptly coming back to the “greatest land system” ever devised in the history of the British Commonwealth—the wonderful Liberal land system; so little understood by the people. With impaired resources, consequent on the bitter attacks privately, publicly and professionally made by men who never gave £1 worth of time for civic or public affairs, but who were actuated either by the spirit of mischief or misguided views of public

duty, I am throwing the whole of ®- energies into my professional Another reason for taking tk*® ®7 is that my two young sons will fln V their Bachelor of Laws degree course next year and will require my persor ' assistance for the next year or • I desire publicly to thank all those have the interests of the mass oi ■ people at heart for their support _ sympathy through the years, assure them that three years henc* spared, I shall be back in the linC ’ A. HALL SKELTON-