The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATES WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1920. A NATIONAL SPY SYSTEM.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3413, 18 February 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATES

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1920. A NATIONAL SPY SYSTEM.

With which is incorpu .1...-u “The Taihape Post. :1! ) Waimarino News.”

There is an old rigmarole about fooling all the people some of the time, some of the people all the time, and that all the people cannot be fooled all the time. If there is a shred of truth in this why does the Prime Minister go on, with his Acts of Parliament, his Board of Trade and -his local tribunals, fooling the’ people about checking profiteering ‘and re ducing the cost of living? Has he not gone sufliciently long and far in proving the falsity of the old gag just quoted? The most hopeful man on earth has lost the last shadow :f belief in Mr Massey ever llJ.»’ll1g' had any intention to reduce the cost. of living or to check profiteering. ’lhe latest trick is to shift all responsibility from the G-overnmenw;-., who blaringly trumpeted an election story that they had passed the mo:-at drastic law against profiteerilig of -my cour:try in the world, but deceptiin ‘and cajolery have become a fine art in New Zealand, and nobody expects anything when the mou'thpieC_e '-f C ( \'~ ernment is at work. The ne;-ssistziice with- which usually un<lex'st->-zwd C‘-«;=v-ernment administration nus been passed on to substitutes at 1.11 enormous cost to taxpayers colitl‘ih:l:-as to the support of the charge that the Reform Party is bankrupt of :~.drn='.nis~ trative ability and intelligence. in vain do such Reforn‘. journals as the New Zealand Herald demand that capable Ministers be appoint-Pd to ‘Cabinet vacancies, and that public works be pushed on with cm‘-ténon executive ability. Nothing happens though the demand has become all but ieral; sterile meetings are held, and fficpayers are told these meetings» were happy family g'atilel'l!lf-ii‘, 371 d that everybody present sxnilol on Mr Massey. Cabinet meets», but nothing is h_ear<l about what it accomplished; a few things are sprung on the people which must have been subjects of discussion, such as the Samoan pleasure trip, the despatch of the New Zea-land'Al-my to Fiji, to frighten a few poor Indians into going to work 101‘ sugar exploiters for just what the expuloiters like to pay them. If ":aXl7PYers are to keep a standing in-my to look after the sugar business, surely they -are entitled to reasonably priced sugar, but it seems that with the army, ship and artillery guns, no sugar at all is available for man.\' people, and sugar-using indus.-‘.-ries are bong ruined and elnplo_v-“es thr-'J\\ll out of work. Not. even our little standing army. equipped with ordnance, can check proiit-coring in sugar; what can the people unsophisltically expect from Mr Ma‘ssey’s Local }TI-ibunals? From a process which ‘sets whole communities spying One jllpon the other, if they are meansoulled enoughlto resort to su :11 rm‘:temptible tricks? A pac‘: of Spies are just spies whether termed tribunals or camouflaged with any other appellation; but what happens Ml6ll the dispicable paid ‘s9s’ t].‘n'3's upon ‘-1 victim and proves right up to the hilt that over one hundred per cent. profit is taken on baby flannel? Poor babies. there is no hope even for them, they must be exploited because" a man's hat was sold at a profit of twenty per cent, which, it is claimed results in 21 ti-’§d’ing loss. The pro-

|cesses, ramifications and monstrosi-I ;ties of trade, inscrutable though they be to ordinary‘ taxpayers are evidentllyquite honest and proper, as the .Govel-nment godfathers them, and our llaiv courts award them highest hon‘ours in commercial morality. What (Will happen if one local detective, a. ‘natural evolution from «the every man gspy system, aliglits upon one of our ‘storekeepers ‘selling sugar at sixvpence a pound, What chance of securing ap[probation and commendation does he stand. His victim will tell the Court ‘he sold a garden rake at a profit of twenty per cent., and it was necessary to equalise on sugar because people had to buy sugar, just as babies have to be supplied with baby flannel. The Court has a precedent in the baby-flannel case, and it is only a matter of course that the 'SvDy’S Case will be dismissed. The present maze of deception, insincerity and State pampered dishonesty can 01113’ I'9-311113 liin an ultimate race of criminals; the worst and most despicaible P 38510113 and attributes of human nature have already been cultivated to a. dangel‘ously menacing stagef v-apine and robbery are -brothers of the ‘trade thief and liar, the progeny ofweak Govern--ment and administrative expediency'Everybody is crying aloud for strong {government and capable administra!tion, and yet such much-vaunted laws \as that claimed to be the most effec}tive ever enacted to check the trade .tllief and liar, are passed on to the ordinary everyday citizen to administer. No government department is equal to administering such a prodigl’ in law-making, and it must needs be left to the man in the street. If the Government is "not strong, it might at least try to exert some effort to administer laws which, in a Wealpmoment. or from"the exigencies of a general election, it has placed on to the statute book. The other day the Prime Minister covertly claimed credit for the Dominion having more sheep at the present time than it had in 1914, but, really. the national insincerity is fast approaching the reductio ad wbsurdum, even in absurdity. It will be Well reniemhered that local bodies were invited to send in lists of public works required, so that Qove;-ninent could have the money ready for their prosecution instantly war ceased;._t'hough pregnant with promises the Government gave birth to nothing. In place of inure settle

ment we have ‘aggregation rampant, and encouraged rather than checked; production is. if anything. decreasing per capita of population than increasing; there is neither public nor "private capital for developing either primary or secondary industry, and national progress is more artificial than real. In fact such a. ‘parlous situation has been reached that men do not know whether to regard Mr Harold Beauchamp’s prediction of dear money as a. blessing or a curse. The practice of cheating has become so Widespread and general that hitherto honest intelligent’ men have got a long way on to cheating themselves. with the idea that the land-Valuer is a veritable creator of gold, While their commonsense tells. them that land is worth what it will produce. In the same way the fact’ of a trader arbitrarily saying an article is worth three times what he gave for it, does not increase its value one farthing, although he may get his fictitious value simply because it is an essential to human life he has mollopollsed. We have experienced the fact that even our hitherto unassailaible pound sterling is now only worth fifteen shillings if we want to ‘buy anything with it from America. It is

essential to reconstruction and progl'€SS that eVer_v weilder of the franchise should ponder over the true situation, over things as we find them. not what ridiculous statements and promises lead us to assume they are going to be by and by. We may well plead with the child, who said, “donit say by and by, say now. by and: bly never comes.” To say that the future is bright is a ‘he, for we have only’ T 0 read what is being stated in the British House of Parliament, and in all other parliaments, to fully realise that the future is fraught only with the gravest possibilities. There are strong indications that our whirl Of deception. plunder and profiteering will continue until it works its own destruction. -Why cannot our Deople be induced to adopt the more honest method of acquiring real riches through increased production? Vwhat an ingloTi°“S Sbectacle we present in this little country, which should be riches producing. not riches consuming, Ilol‘ given up to money juggli.ngGovernment has evolved a law called the ‘Board of Trade Act, which neither it nor the Board of Trade can administer, and the Government, in sheer hopelessness, has thrown it over to the people to use as. they pleaise, or as they find it possible. Every} man and woman is invited ‘to become

a spy against suspected s'hop}:enper.=; and manufacturers, but would it not be just a;s logical/and‘ reasonable to dispense -with police and élepend entirely upon this Anew-fangled spy system, in which every individual is ‘invited 3:0 become an informe‘r, ‘for the

detection and punishment of all other

crimes, many of which are far less criminal in nature than those in which from 100 to 3000 per cent. are taken as profits on necessaries of human 'life?.'Wh'at people are told is prosperity is not prosperity, it is a condition in which money is rapidly passing "into fewer hands, and if the per capita debt is deducted from the per capita. Wealth, the New Zealand Laxpayer is poorer to—day than ever he was. Our estimate of the future can only be based upon our ability to produce more, and the ability of British and foreign peoples to pay 115 & profitable price for what We do produce. Any disruption at Home and albroad may destroy our znarkr.-ts at any moment. The Whole British Empire is under a glass roof that may be shattered at any time. New Zealand would be virtually immune from extraneous troubles with a 1-r=t.urn to sane trading, and an exodus of men and women from consuming centres to production on the lands of -the country.