The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 1919. A NATIONAL SCANDAL.

Taihape Daily Times, 28 March 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 1919. A NATIONAL SCANDAL.

(With wUicb is incorporated Tne '*.u iape Post sad Walemrl'io N<m«\

Once, more a Minister of the Crown lias brought the constituencies of this young country face to face with the curse of jpolitics. A few days ago the Hon. G. W. Russell told. a large gathering that the time had gone by when twenty different railways .coul'd go on in the making at the rate of one mile a as a result of political jobbery, and we immediately looked around to discover, where the political works are that were needed to keep our member’s seat in Parliamant warm. We could find no political railways, no political roalds, no political bridges, no political mail services; in fact, there was nothing political ove ; r the whole face of this constituency, and we wondered whether it was really necessary for a member of Parliament to resort to political jobbery to be honoured and trusted by those who elect him as their representative. The Hon. Mjr Russell opened up another channel of political thought. He caused many people throughout the Dominion to ruminate and soliloquise over the combination of political curses with which the masses of the people are at present so terribly afflicted. Mr Russell said enough to impress people with the fact that the source of politics was soulless as well as headloss, and although the country was drifting to damnation nothing could be done till tl;o head or boss of politics was restored o,r replaced. The few statesmen in the country arc alarmed that while there is ample money the State is (drifting towards bankruptcy; while there are incalculable millions of money in the soil awaiting to be rescued for 1 Ik? use and comfort of the people, men are herded in the cities and a few slicep roam over miles of neglected and burred pasturage. Those who cannot and will not continue in revelling in plcasuro-soekig, displaying (disgusting opulence, bragging ostentatiously of their riches, ’easting anil drinking with the Government Belshazzar, are looked upon as Jeremiahs; but even a Minister of the Crown has sot himself the task icf deciphering and, interpreting the writing on the political wall; of warning the people of the evils to come from a continuance of political jobbery, that, process - ’* of cajoling, cozening and hoodwinking that has taken the place of honest statesmanship and decent administration. The body politic is fast being covered with festerings that must result in social decay and political chaos, perhaps bloodshed following upon revolutionary efforts of the political body to cleanse itself from the corrupting affection and influence A beneficent nature has enriched this lan'd with a highly productive soil and a bounteous clime, and it behoves, every intelligent reformer to guide and hasten .a stream of humanity from the congested, disease laden atmosphere of our cities tu whence all labour is rapidly drifting, on to the plains ami hills where for miles only miserably farmed sheep and cattle may now bo seen hunting for sufficient pasturage to exist upon. A solemn human silence pervades a great part of our land, while a starving, festering people arc struggling for house room and wherewith to keep body and soul together in towns and cities. An intelligent settler came to us v«.''v !I nv and informed us G ■ *• b" ’ • ’ I T, r> -nro-

pcrty close Ho said he was taking the risk of being called an aggregator of the public estate; but ho said. “I want to impress upon you this one fact, that fully three-fourths of the cases of aggregation in this district are the result of the demand for schools and teachers and mail services in old. close-settled country districts.” Wo have around us in Taihape abundant evidence that farm owners themselves n °l r csido on their farms where they arc compelled by a headless, heedless, soulless Government to bring their children up in ignorance. The stream of humanity is going the way of death, off the lan'fl, leaving the pure aig of the 1 country, the abundance of nch val- . leys, plains and hills, going to already over-crowded cities where no houseroom is available, to where they arc compelled to herd like boasts of the field at shearing time, mixing and moving amongst diseases that destroy both body and mind, creating the necessity far more hospitals, more gaols and more charitable institutions. Labour ! is honourable, but man is. no longer ‘deceived with tiny nxiomsitic nonsense 5 j today there is an unquenchable desire 1 for the school, the library, and the j lecture ball, and man will not bo I fo,rced back where,- at least, the former jof these is not available for the j education of bis children. This young country is pining for statesmen and loaders who will turn back the stream of humanity that is veritably pouring off the land citywards and town wards, turn it back to whence all riches are derivable nnd obtainable; tu,rn it back j from squander and squalor and crime j and poverty and revolution, to the i pure, peaceful atmosphere of the | healthiest and most prolific lulls, j valleys and plains in the whole world. | It will remain a lasting disgrace in i the history of New Zealand Govcrn--1 inents that the people have, to associate and appeal to Government fop house room to accommodate the soldiers that are being returned to this land from where they offered their lives in defence of their , homes against the great menace to civilisation. The same Government that found moans of ruthlessly taking men from the land will not move a finger to see that a. shelter is available for them now that their duty is done. The country ■ could afford a profligate j military system, almost countless 1 boards and commissions fc snatch men j away; but it is too expensive a matter j to even give shelter to what life is i returning to ns. The Wellington War i Relief Association has been forced j into action that should shame any | Government with an atom of humanity jin its whole composition. The shortj age of house room for soldiers has | reached .W- scandalous' extreme; the j War Relief Association has oncountorj od numerous cases in which soldiers, j after four years in the-. trenches, are j deprived of even house * room when i they aijrivo back in New Zealand, and j the Association is face to face with many cases in which women cannot 1 procure even a roopi in which to take j shelter from the elements. The chairman of the War Relief Association states that the Government should be able to build houses cheaper than any private individual, and still ;an inhuman Government callously views the soothing mass of houseless people, women and soldiers, and refuses to use j a shilling of the public money in alleviating the suffering and removing the scandal. Excuse ami quibble they furnish to a revolting 'degree; but let all realise that here is a demand that wi.il not bo denied; there is no argument that can hold against the uecesj sities of the people; it is criminal 1 folly to trifle and dally with a state j that is positively and immediately dis- | astrous from whatever point it may be j viowdd, and the very stringency of 1 it will compel the remedy despite the incapacity of the men in power to handle it. It is courting disaster to nurse up any thought that some wonderful specific will come like a bolt from the blue; there seems only one specific la sight, and that is to immediately turn back the stream of humanity that is pouring into centres ■of population off the land. If any person has doubts about the reality of this stream let him view the houseless masses in cities and towns, I an'd then come into the country and j sec the hundreds of erstwhile farmj houses, whore prosperous families wore j domiciled, empty, rotting, falling into | decay because there is nobody to live jin them. The political railways j mentioned by the Hon. G. W. Russell, j and other political sins and ineptitudes j of the Government, have brought about an exddus from the land to the crowded streets of the cities. In cities the people cannot find house ( room; in the country houses are rotting for want of tenants, and schools are closed for want of teachers. -It—seems' to us that the only sane course to follow is to turn the people back to the empty houses in the country; give them schools with capable,.!cachers; give them the mail services they justly claim a right to. and they will gladly forsake the glare and glamour, the squalor and squandering of city life for the more healthful, ennobling vocation of prooucing the riches the country is in 'dir' l need of.