THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1912. A SEVERE CRITICISM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10712, 3 October 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1912. A SEVERE CRITICISM.

New Zealand lias for years been regarded as the home of legislative experiments. It his been held up to the world as an example of how diverse elements in society may he reconciled by Parliamentary intervention. Hut slowly the mask of decep-tion-is being removed, and we are shown in the true nakedness of our sham and. make-believe. We have been able to fool ourselves and the world for .nearly a couple of decades; but when wo are faced with the stern realities of life we shudder at our own importunities and imperfections. To the stranger we. afford a great deal of entertainment, if not amusement. Thus it is that we find a recent visitor, Mr B. K. .Miller, a prominent Milwaukee attorney, returning to his heme and criticising us in a most scathing manner. What "Professor" W. T. Mills, the Milwaukee, humourist, who illuminates the pages of the N.Z. Times with his day-dreams, thinks of the caustic remarks of his fellow-townsman, one cannot say. Mr Miller, however, is candid. He spent four months in New Zealand, investigating our social conditions, and when he returned to America he was in-

torvicv/ctl by flu- Los Angeles Sunday Times. That with surprising hardihood, headed mi article, "New Zealand Lankrupuy: Colonial Failures of Experiments in Socialis;n." Jt then proceeded to givo Mr Millers views on the socialistic experiments of the Dominion. The visitor found that in New-Zealand, the Government con- . trois railroads, telegraph and tole- , phone lines, ail public utilities, tanks ' and does a life ' and fire insurance business, but that in spite of all those things th? Socialistic experiments, had proven a complete failure and that the country itself was hopelessly bankrupt. And the reason is plain, according to Mr Miller. We are hopelessly in debt "because the Government has been inefficient and extravagant. Its life insurance, for one

thing, has maintained' itself. But it has tried so ?n;viy other experiments that it lias had to borrow vast sums to make up deficits, and now -.bout 21 per cent of its income is used in paying the interest on these Joans. About one person in five is a Government employee." One may not agre© entirely with the conclusion arrived at by Mr Miller; but there is certainly justification for tho assertion that wo have been coin polled to borrow vast sums of money to keep the political pot boi'.ing. The improvidence of the Government and the people appears to have impressed the visitor more than anything else, for ho says that "bankruptcy is not the worst of it." He proceeds to state that "if a country be improvident it can, like an individual, go into bankruptcy and compromise with its creditors. Socialism, however, has devitalised the people and sapped their initiative. Nowhore else in the world have I seen Anglo-Saxons so casual and inefficient. Bankruptcy and a compromise will not avail. In one town, labourers were digging a ditch, one of the simplest and snfest forms of labour I know of. The pay was ten shillings (say 2.40d0d.) a day of eight hours. If the place were damp they got an additional shilling (say 24 cents). So far as I could judge tlio labourers were doing about half the work which would be required in a like time in America, England or Canada." We have recently .been told that .the.colonial worker does more' than the English worker. Mr Miller evidently docs not believe anything of the sort. Nor is he satisfied with our Labour legislation. "Labour Unions . have been i.a control and tho results have been, bad. Capitalistic exploitation is undesirable, but labour exploitation is just as bad. The Socialists have long pointed with pride to New •Zealand and insisted that in that country they had obtained industrial peace; that strikes and lockouts were forbidden by'law, and that judicial decisions had taken their pi tee. 'Just so long as the decisions were in their favour the labottrors were content, but lately there have been several decisions in favour of the employers and the trades unions are withdrawing their subscription to the Arbitration Act and returning to strikes and intimidation."