The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1919. WHY SO MUCH POVERTY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3350, 1 December 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1919. WHY SO MUCH POVERTY.

With which ixs incorporated ‘fThe Taihape Poss and Waimarino Newa.”

1 The present election campaign is lundcniably disclosing that there is lvery much that is "rotten in the state of Denmark.” Dr Newman is chag-rin-ed to find that in spite of charitable aid so much poverty still obtains, and he asks, “Why is there so much poverty.” He thinks there should be a wider distribution of wealth; it is a ,problem that presses for solution, and ‘he believes that problem is on the eve of being solved, -but -he left his hearers to guess how. Is it profitable to the State to permit the overwhelming (poverty that the little Doctor seems so eoneerne'd about? We are fully advisea that the Mother Countywas found to be in a similarly poverty-stricken condition that is admitted in this Dominion, but the British Gbvernnlen't decided, after consideration, investigation, counting the costs and comparing them. with the losses, thatfto allow such poverty to continue ‘was a: distinctly ruinous business proposition. In New Zcaland, after discovering that the state of poverty obtains to an alarming degree, no further‘ action is taken; there has been no submission of it to the business test, hence Dr Newman is shouting at his election meetings “Why is "there so much poverty.” . But the Doctor has been in Parliament for many years, why hashe not asked the Government why there is so much poverty? Why does he ask the electors of Welliiigton East? It is his duty to know whether there is poverty; and why there is poverty, and when he -has answered these two questions to his own satisfaction it is his duty.; to set about discovering whether it is profitable from a “business point of view, and advisable from a national health point of view that the condition of poverty should rather be cultivated than removed altogethcr. Dr Newman knows very well, and everybody else knows that much poverty is because the necessaries of life are unobtainable

without taking the risk of being commif.‘od re :2 -"_c-rminf smm"-is-':«nmevl‘r. ’l"‘-1e primal cause of pqverty is greed—lust for money; poverty is perpetuated "liecause those who are elected to govern ‘the State without prejudice to any class Vcnaliy neglect their duty. There .!is the pitiabie spectacle of a prominent member of a political party, a Member of Parliament. appealing to his election meetings to know “why there is so much poverty,” while He sees the State is encouraging profiteers to go on madly turning the wheels of poverty-making ‘machinery. Britain has found that poverty making is distinctly bad lbusiness; Britain has discovered that the cost of maintain-

ling a huge poverty-stricken class is 'fatal to the countl'y’s best interests; that the road to national reconstruction and progress is blocked by the appalling mass of poverty. Bl'itasn has learned beyond question that the ‘loss sustained by the State owing t 0 the physical unfitncss of this ever increasing class of labour, must, if €l3lowed to continue, contribute considerably ‘to national disaster; the British Government has '- examined the national -ledger and found that pOVOT’O.V and resultant physical inability 'to earn anything towards 'the upkeep of State ‘Administration is Very seriously on the wrong side, and poverty as »1 recognised condition in Britain is. doomed, it does not pay. But Dr Newma.n’s alarm at the growth and degrading effects of poverty, should be regarded with some concern by the whole .bn.=iXIOBS community, for the deeper the state of’ poverty: the more is the pur-} chasing po'hs‘Vél".Oyf,‘t-I'lo people decrea}s'ed'._‘j We -know, however, that business!

people have no care or thought for such abstract problems and truths, if customers come well and good, if they ldo not there is wonder whv; the ‘danger of allowing the spending power ibf the people to be ‘ruthlessly (lestray--ed by disregard and faulty (}-Jvern» f ment is never thought of till the Dr §Newmans in Parliament ask their con- ‘ stitueneies “why there is .so much gpovertyl” Under the present Govern_.'ment there has been a disconcerting lrace between the price of life necesysaries and the wages of labour. At one heat labour’ looks as though. ‘it Iwere overwhelmned and beaten, but a Irehandicap my the Arbitration Tjrsurt ggives wages new life, and away they go, leaving the price of life necessaries ‘well in the rear. But when is this gunprofitable menace to production goQing to cease? It goes on and on, ‘statesmen winking and Government gglecfully hand-rubbing, while the great ‘mass of people who neither benefit by ‘either increase of priees or wages are

‘becoming more and. more povertyistricken, while the public debt is periilously mounting up per head of lialbility. It does not seem to trouble ‘anyone that-the per capita ‘calculation ‘is a fallacy; that the spread of poverty is rendering a large per eentage of the lpcople incapable of responsibility for the national liabilities, and that those [responsibilities must be borne by those ‘who have not yet fallen into the povierty pit. Is it not a very vital econlomic blunder to go on pursuing a npolicy and a system of Government ithat adds to poverty, and doesnothing towards rescuing citizenship from so ‘fatal and inexorable a danger? Are iNew Zealand people so bankrupt of statesmanship, and -understanding of such commonplace business problems, ‘that they will negligently countenance ‘the drift into national poverty that ’-has se-t in to such an alarming condition that prominent Members of Parliament, supporters of the present regime, should be importunately appealing to the constituencies to know “Why there is so much poverty?" May we suggest to electors here and elsewhere, that the great need of this country is ‘Members of Parliament who [know and Iwiu honestly admit, “why {there is so much poverty.” If Dr I-Newman, who has lbeen a prominent member of the party which has had [control of this coulftry’s government {for many years, does not know.why ‘there is so much poverty now, it does not appear as though ‘he were altogether justified in asking the electors of Wellington East to give him a rirew |lease of parliamentary" life. ' If he does not know why there is so much I poverty, he certainly should have shown more electioneering disc:-etinn Ithan to publicly ‘appeal to his would‘be constituents for that inforlr.atlon. It will be presumed that the ‘eleotoi-9 lexpected -him to answer that question, iand also to state why the Government he supports had not taken steps to ‘stay the fatal drift that has set in ‘JII the road to incligence and sta.l-vetioii, land they may yet ply him with his own question. Dr l\Tewman’s question lfurnishes food for thought .for this {and -all other electorates as \vell as that of Welliiigton East.