STATE-OWNED SHIPS.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1916, Page 6

STATE-OWNED SHIPS.

To the Edito.. Sir, -It j a to be hoped readers ail thoroighly digest your article of Satur day last dealing with the' difficulty oi -raiispoitation of produce, and the re aiedy '.the only one) of solving the same. More information, as often a* los-siUh Mr. Editor, must prove accept able ,'o ti:e great mass 01 producers ii this country, and 1 have not the slight est doi.bt that by keep the acts oftlu "pa-erotic"' (save the mark!) dividenc hunt.'r, as represented by shipping com panies. hefure tiie public it will not 01 .bug before a radical move is mad< wherony the producers will act as die tator, ond not a snw'll .section of tin community. The taxpayers of this Do minion have spent hundred's of thou ■•'ids in subsidy to the Old Land as eon •'•'hiition to the cost of protecting th< sea highway (not counting the Xeu Zealand Dreadnought). Was.that high way protected in the interest of tin producers, who p.iid the cost, or was i 1 ;'or the benefit of capital invested ii ships? The ronsumers of the Old Lam have contributed millions in building nj protection for its commerce by means ol the Krvy, but the shipping 'c.Viipanies by increasing charges, etc., have there ly decreased the cost of eatables, etc. to the masses, and have been the only ones to benefit from the expenditure pel taxation of the people. What are governments for? What do electors send men to Parliament for, but to watch the interests of the people as a. .vholei How they do it is evident, and the mass of electors should revise their opin'.ons so that the party system, which tends to. the advancement of cliques, -hould be obliterated, and a government nsiugii'.ated that has the courage to face ■-.icli questions as that of transportation jf pnduce and banking. "The day of •v.-opnvtary concerns has passed," says ;n eminent authority. Let us see to it that the most rapacious of them is ouieki., put amongst the number. We have been easily bamboozled in the past by those .vho practically suck the lifeblood out of the Dominion, and '. am po.-iti e the inauguration of State-own-ed ships, and the breaking-down of other monopolies 'by the State (i.e., the peo!ple) ivould spell an enormous increase in production, besides helping to bring down the cost to the consumer. If we look ni things rightly, it should be our aim to increase in production and sell "hoapor, but when our responsible men "■"•'ill fold their arms and let a combina- '■ tion of capitalists do as they like, it does r-em ridiculous. As I inent-onod at a recent Maketawa meeting, we (the people) rate ourselves to provide good ! mads in order to cart our milk to cen- \ ;ral Siations, and these roads and stations cost a mint of money.' We collectively build meat freezing and but-ter-cooling works, which also take a lot ' of cash. As units of the community, j and, a? a whole, we pay towards- the J railinj of the country in order to take our products to the harbors which we pay for—it applies to everything that comes off the land—and then a coml iuation of persons is allowed, under the piea that "vested interests must be considered," to do as they like in regard to transferring that produce to its natural market... Well, well! I claimed that if it that the railways and roads should belong to the people, it followed as a natural sequence that the transport per water should also belong to the people. It is to De loped that dairy factories and all combinations dealing with the produce of th • land, sheep farmers, etc., with trades unions, in fact, all branches of producers and consumers, will go into this question unbiassed, for it is a question jjf great national importance, and that fi om one end of the country to the other they will get such a "push'' on that ai.y man aspiring to the honor of M.P. who holds the opinion that "vested interests must be considered,'' will speedily be shown that it is the masses who are goong to have the say, and that if patriotism means the love of one's country, and, incidentally, the peoDle in it, the whole of the people are going io run it through representatives who are not hypocrites. The public have q.iite recently put up close on 10 million, for war purposes, and there is no raison why the producers of this coun.-v (and also the trades and workers in conjunction) could not do likewise to provide the wherewithal for providin,; ships, and, when they provide the i! Ips, bump out the dividend-hunt-er by supporting their own, thereby putting themselves in the position of dictator as to a fair tiling, instead of, as at present, having to look on while bare-f.'.ed robbery is perpetrated—robbery which means high prices to the consumer of our products and in queuc. high prices for our requirements which we need from oversea. The farming • <nir t uuity'support freezing and othei co-operative concerns on the basis of "according to supply," and the same principle can apply in supporting the Goveri ment in obtaining ships. However, .vir. Editor, let me once again ask readers to go into your Saturday's article thoroughly—it hurts no one to thin>:—and I am sure there will be but one result; but we must not expect "Gree:;" to find the means of upsetting "Greed'—l :m, etc., JOE B. SIMPSOX. I Curtain Koad, Oetobpr g.