The One-Act Tragedy

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 590, 16 February 1929, Page 7

The One-Act Tragedy

Failure to Buy Dominion-Made Goods A REMEDY NEEDED Unfortunately, an all-too-common h L se ot our daily life> the followin e sketch might have been proneed almost anywhere. Time—fre- ' entlv Scene —countrj' store. Reptentative of manufacturing firm i king to storekeeper. Enter woman ind small boy. After casually looking ,ver goods woman buys cake of imported chocolate and hands it to boy. of manufacturing ami (addressing woman): Excuse me. but why did you select that brand of Ch \Voman: Oh, I don’t know. Willie May I be permitted draw your attention to the many Zealand -made brands on sale : T e? They are as good and as cheap as the imported lines. Woman: I, just buy what Willie Some day, when Willie is setting out to find work, he wll perhaps regret his mother’s indulgence. The curtain falls, to be raised again in 10 years time, with Willie. as prophesied by the industrialist, looking for work. Ask any doting mother what her Willie is going to do when he grows up Perhaps she wdll say he is to co on the land, but more likely than not he will drift cityward, his eyes glistening at the thought of what the Metropolis can offer him—congenial work, amusement, friends, libraries, whatever his particular fancy demands. If. when Willie has grown up, Zealand is economically in the s; me position as to-day, he will be disillusioned and perforce must join tlie ranks of those -who earn, or do not tarn, a precarious livelihood with the shovel and pick. ‘But,” it may be said, “he should never have left the l ft nd*. The wealth of our country lies in its primary industries, and Willie nould have been wise to have resigned himself to the country life where his living would have been assured.’* But now men who, a few years ago, cuuld have found employment in the fields, come to the towns seeking work, people like Willie’s mother say, in effect: “No. you can’t have work. Get buck to the country where you belong. We prefer to pay the wages of the Japanese and the cosmopolitan millions of Europe” The workers, denied their work, become that socially and economically dangerous body, “the unemployed.” Unemployment not only retards progress, but breeds Bolshevism and undermines the foundations of our national structure. It is certainly not to be expected that the unwanted men will migrate to rural districts. It is only in the town that any effort at charitable relief is made, and soup kitchens and relief depots, if nothing else, will keep them in the centres of population in defiance of so-called natural laws.

A remedy is urgently needed, and I)r. Common-Sense recommends the protection of our industries and an \ amicable partnership between farmer and manufacturer. Supposing that Willie's mother and her half-million friends decided that it was in their own interests to lead each little Willie to show a marked preference for the products of his own country. The prosperity of our industries would be assured and, to the whirr of busy wheels, New Zealand would enter an era which, though perhaps not the millennium, would be a long stride in the right direction. Men who are now forced to Queue up on the wharves seeking casual employment could find their true level as skilled artisans. There could no longer be any need for an embargo on immigration, as busy factories could absorb many operatives even after providing work for all our unemployed and the Willies leaving school. The farmer would benefit in his turn because a readily accessible and voracious market would be available for his produce. As the population increases the demand for the products of primary industry becomes greater and men with agricultural instincts are given a needed incentive to develop barren

lanes. In America, grouped round the big manufacturing centres, small farmers enjoy a healthy prosperity growing food for mill hands. For a lime, the States concentrating on industries, this small farming was neglected, and it was left to the Japanese in California to demonstrate its importance. The possibilities were soon realised, however, and now throughout, the United States, farmer and industrialist alike recognise how essential is the well-being of one to the prosperity of the other. The “natural laws’* so frequently quoted are based on the assumption that, as man’s first need is for food, the most prosperous country is that which provides sustenance for the rest of the world, and arms the bulk of its population with a hoe and a sickle. U is not fully realised that the speed-ing-up of farm work by means of machinery, the aid afforded agriculture by science, the more and more intensive cultivation of lands, all make it possible that 1 per cent., instead of 50 per cent., of the world’s people w T ill soon be able to provide food for the rest. Thus the natural law, true as it may once have been, is rescinded by Progress, and it becomes increasingly obvious that, in New Zealand, which should be our first interest, young manhood must either find his sphere in industry, or, as has been the case of late years, leave the Dominion. ~rP n ' y a P r °P er respect for the slogan ‘Buy N.Z. Goods” can change this state of affairs for the better. It is no parrot cry. that slogan. Nor is it the clarion of masters of industry anxious to make money out of the People of their own country. It is the appeal of thousands of New Zealanders who want to see the Dominion worthy of the title now so often bestowed on it in bitter irony—God’s Own Country. M.P.W.