The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1920. THE NATIONAL WEATHERCOCK.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3427, 5 March 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1920. THE NATIONAL WEATHERCOCK.

With which is incorpc‘/3,‘-:" “The Taihape Post all} ’Waima;ino News.”

At a conference of Chambers of Commerce being held in VVellington, Mr Massey, among other things, told the businessmen assembled that “the outlook for the coming year‘ was good.” Is it not hopeless to expect. any statement about either the present or the future from the Premier that the people of the country can depend upon? If the masses of the people were all woollen mill owners, boo't. manufacturers, tea merchants, tauners, or purveyors of any of life’s greatest necessities, as were most of the men to whom Mr Massey was makirfg his oneeyed statements, things would look bright for New Zealand, and the outlook for the future might be good. Newspapers are flooded with the untruthful, the despicable nonsense about the masses of the people hoarding tea. sugar. flour. leather, hides, wool, and, in fact, everything that is required to keep up the physique of the race. In the face of the fact that many families are now unable ‘to get suflicient to keep them in health, while they are told by dealers, throughnewspapers. that tea, sugar, bread, boots, clothes. coal, kerosene are going to increase to an extent that will need their wages to be increased by another fifty per cent if they are to keep a decent life in their bodies. Tea is to go up to five shillings a pound, and boots are to be increased in price by another five to -ten shillings a pair, and all other needs of existence are to be increased by similar amounts, and yet Mr Massey says the outlook is good; good for what or who’? \Vhile the Prime Minister, leading statesmen, and economists of Britain are telling the Empire and the world that the situation, present and future, is of the gravest description, Mr Massey is saying the outlook is good. But then, Mr Massey stated that ‘there was undoubtedly serious hoarding of sugar by the people,,and a, few days after denied the people were guilty of hoarding. The fact is Mr Massey either dcesn’t knoxrwhat he is talking about, or he is deceiving the people, adjusting his statements to the nature and business of the people he is for the moment talking to. If he would abolish all the Boards and Commissions he has set up, and make his Ministry and Parliament do the work which they are elected to do, and use the money saved thereby in keeping down the price of bread Io the people, bakers and millers could get. a fair iproiiit and the people still have a sufiiciency of bread. Mr Massey is advocating economy, while his Government is the most spemllthrift Ministry New Zealand has any knowledge of. Mr Massey is making his Ministers and himself mere jackals for prcifitecrs, for almost every act affecting thc necessaries of life is throwing huge profits to the proflteering class. But the Premier has discovered, contrary to the findings of America, Fiance, Britain, and other countries that profiteering is a mere nothing; that it is not the cause of high prices. While British statesmen are stating that profitcering is the cause of the gravest situation, he is saying that profitecring is not the cause of increase in cost of living, and he actually wants a meeting rigged up to discuss the ques't.iOn, and to prove that all other statesmen and economists of the, world are t'ools, or blithering idiots to talk about profiteering, having anything worth mentioning to do With‘

high costs of life necessaries. Mr :\‘[as-] soy tells Lloyd George, and olhers in highest. world positions, that they arel mistaken, the starvation of mankind now, and more so in the future, is due‘ to shortage ‘of labour caused by the war. When Mr Massey tells us that; tea has advanced ‘to five shillings ai pound, -as already promised, we must‘ believe him when he tells us that it is! all owing to the shortage of la.bour;| the black girls all having been taken: from tea. picking and packing, in the,tea gardens of Ceylon and India to go to the war. For, of course, he Will Ilot deny that women and girls do most. of the work in tea gathering and preparation for market. Other governments are begging, importuning dealers and manufacturers to be more 11011681? in their profit-takin.g,,and Mr Massey appointed a Board of Trade,.and spent money in other ways to stop profiteering, and now he, at last, discovers that profiteering is not the real trouble, and he tells the conference of Chambers of Commerce this new belief. But why does he not act consistently and dismiss his Board of Trade, and cease spending money Ito combat profiteering? The fact is, Mr Massey is wriggling; as a speaker at a recent meeting said, he was elected by profiteers, and he is doing their dirty work. The country is being regaled by utter garbage; the Premier inveighs against the burden of taxation, and says a new system is urgently required, and in the very next breath says there is no hope for anything being done to lessen or readjust the burden. The masses of the people in this country have now fully realised that they haev no friend in Mr Massey; they know that his Government is the most ruthless profiteer, the most culpable robber of the poor they have to fear; they know that if -tea. goes up to five shillings a pound, Government will levy full duty on the increase, be what it may. Unionsvof workers are already discussing ‘the means adopted by the Government to increase taxation; WOl‘l{Ol'S are quite convinced that pro{iteering is encouraged by Government as :1 means of increasing revenue. increases are permitted and winked at so that the Comptroller of Customs may swoop down upon his share of the increases which amount to ‘Twenty-five or more per cent. No sooner is an arrangement arrived at with the coalminers to return -to work in the mines, than increases in cost of living, of boots, bread, tea, sugar, coal, woollen goods, cotton, to such an extent ‘that miners \\ ill not be one penny better off in the end. The proiitecrs and their government. are giving with one hand and taking back with the other more than ‘they gave. But what Mr Massey’s object is in saying there is no serious profiteering, while the consensus of highest knowledge and opinion of the whole world states that profiteering is now the one great menace to civilisation, neither wet‘, nor anyone else can explain, but in one way Mr Masseys statenients are at variance with his convictions, or he would dismiss his anti-profiteering ([2) Board of Trade, and lessen taxation by the amount of money saved thereby. It is truly pivtiable to list.en to Mr Massey thinking this and thinking ‘that; thinking one thing to-day, and thinking something diflerent to—morro\v. He

I thinks it a -good thing to withdraw papc-r money, but he cannot think of anytliing whcrewith to replace it; besides he does not think of withdrawing paper money at all. He thinks the taxing machine full of anomalies, but he does not think of alter‘ing it. He does think of, setting‘ up a Commission to think out a means of altering; it, but we thinl; tha7 <‘ml‘y f 0“ upon the Government When it ‘was ‘elected; we also think that if they thou;;rh“: they were incapable of think ing they were dishonest in seeking election. We also think that Mr l\~ias—sep must think that indirect taxation has reached just about the limit that {so outrageous a class taxation dare lgo. Still he does not think it advis[able to reduce, or even -stop the asltounding increase that is constantly ggoing on with the increase of 11150053He is thinking of reducing income tax paid by profiteers and others; he has to do this to be consistem; with the thought that there ‘-5 no pl'ofite.'-=i'-ing Worth mentioning, The Premieits‘ thinking machinery is of the weather-cock kind, it swing; I'(J‘.l7lCl and round adjusting itself to every breeze, and what is more seirious his new Ministry is no better omiiox-czd with more stable powers of :hou:;ht for the country’s good t:.li.-m lztz is himself. But. if- Mr M-.1:-;.:ey and his Ministryt cannot think out some scheme for keeping up a synchronisation between cost of living and the income of the masses, they had better think of flitting. It won’t do to tell'peoplQ men killed in war are responsible; if there are fewer workers there are fewer eaters. Surely Mr Massey does not mean to argue that the men left on earth are unable to keep themselves by their own labour. Men are working, but they cannot get sufiicient of what they produce to enable them to keep healthy life in i.‘h(‘lllS(‘lVfCs and. their rfziiiiilies. Is it‘ not a fact that shipping rings, fin_an,.: cial institutions, cotton and woollen,‘

manufacture:-s are piling up millions annually while starvation is becoming more and more rampant. Mr Massey thinks and thinks in a circle, he cannot get outside it, but the people will one day cut his thinking short with 21 most savoury surprise. §