PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19902, 3 June 1936, Page 9

PUBLIC OPINION

As expressed by correspondents, whose letters are welcome. but for whose views we have no responsibility. Correspondents are requested to write in ink. It ls essential that anonymous wruers enclose their Proper names as a guarantee of good faith; Unless this rule ls comDlled with, thelr letters will not, appear.

"ILLUSION 0F DEFENCE.” _... (To the Editor.) Sin—Allow me to congratulate the \Vaikaio Times on publishing in last Saturday‘s supplement the article. appearing under the above heading, which I hope has been widely I'C‘dti\\‘halever the editorial view may be, the Times seems always to place before its readers pretty well every side to a question, and it is pleasing to see that the question of defence is not being treated as an exception in this respect.—l am, etc., R. E. HANSEN. Orinl, June 1. “BECAUSE OF" OR “IN SPITE OF.” (To the Editor.) Sir,—Sahurday’s issue contained some priceless reasoning under the above heading, by a correspondent signing himself "in Spite of." ills assertion that we are “round the corner“ “in spite oi” the present Government's reign is not in accord—ance with fact. The improvement noted is due to the fact that millions of new debt money is being created by "Finance" for armaments. Apparently your corro—spondcnt is prepared to accept the semblance of prosperity at the risk of the. destruction of civilisation, and destruction is inevitable it" Governments pursue their present mad course. Also "sound finance" is most anxious to lend us all money now—— or, in other words, give us an um» brella when we do not need it, and take it away from us when we do need it.—l an‘i, etc., R. G. YOUNG. Gordonton, June 1. NOISES AT NIGHT. (To the Editor.) Sir,—l am just in a quandary to know who is responsible for having caused a public nuisance last Saturday 'night at 10 o’clock in London Street. Could you please tell me if the Hamil»ton traiilc inspector or the llumilton Borough Council should be prosecuted, separately or eonjoinlly, for allowing a “civic screeching machine" to enter London Street and scrccch therein, to the annoyance or people living there—in? in my case I was left in charge of 9. heavy cight—months—old baby boy while his mother was ut the big show. i had only just; got the child over a his cry and to sleep, when this machine rang out a weird noise that almost sent the baby into liysterics. 1 could not settle down to sleep until the very early hours of Sunday morning, 1 might have been charged with manslaughter, indeed, had the baby choked. Do tell me, through your columns, what is the best course to take to find the party responsible for the nuisance. I do not know if I will ever set over this great trial, and I must say that 1 should receive some compensation.——l am. etc., GREAT-GRANDPA. Hamilton, June 2. mRAILWAY CROSSING. (To the Editor.) Sir,—Your correspondent “RH." suggests that my thoughts have “rambled" on the subject of the crossing. For his own solution (raising the railtraek) he has rambled to lluntly. llc could have found his idea where.l found mine—at the ltivcr Road crossing. But i discarded the idca because it is no solution. The broad question at issue is Hamilton's tradic system. 1 have used the word “qucstion”—-—in reality there is none, because the solution is clear and un—mistakable. Hamilton‘s tral’iic diLlicul—ties are like those of tho schoolboy. There are the river, the ridge and the railway—the three it‘s. l will take them in order. (1) The ltivcr.——\\‘c have, or shortly will have, two tral'lic bridges. From their position as the two ends of the town one might suppose that there was a distinct danger that trade was likely to grow between those on the left bank and those on the right bank; that the tarifl'mongcr had been at word and placed the bridges where they would be oi~ the least use. At the centre oi‘ the town—just where it is needed most—there is no traillc bridge. A central bridge would itseli‘ greatly Case Victoria Street battle. (2) The liitlgc.—’J‘hc traillc problem is one purely of north and south trailic. There is no problem ol’ trailic moving cast and west. The ridge has been cut by Victoria Street and by Anglesea ilrcct. Someday it may no desirable to cut it at llinemou Street. .\n Alexandra Street cut is useless, because llood Street. is a permanent blind street, and, while the railway runs as at present, \\"ard street also. (it) The ltail\\'ay.—’l'hc railway is :t complete bar to .\nglcsca Slrrcl and llincmou street. it is n t'ulllilltlJl ltlL'llill'i’ and hold—up at Scdtlon ltoail amt Victoria Street. )ly proposal .is to solve (inch of illt'ht,‘ dil‘llt'ullics, and to solve (":tl'll permanently. ii is to sink the railway from Frankluu to tllnlnh-lamls and in make the present railway bridge a I'Ulllilllll‘tl traffic and railway liridg; 'l‘he lrai‘llc bridge will he on the pin:senl rail level and the railw'ny tinder—nealh. 'l‘hc following results will follow: .a, thinners amt «11-lays at level crosv ings in llznnillon will lie t-liminalt-«l: .hi llamillon will llit\i'lt lrnliii- bridge in lllr centre ol' the town, where Ilic need is Kl'ralrs’l, and will then haw a runnpli‘li' lti'iiluu equipment; i‘.-i “I“ railway will runiplvtwly t't'.l.\l' lu ln- .l-l llll]|l'1illlll‘ll! to north and south li'nlli', which, in .irlrlzlinn. \\Ell lmn- (\\u on, lirel) new t'l'\l>\ill!>‘ .il llillt‘lillhl Sli'm-I illlvl .\lljdlt'\t'i| Slim-I; (1] I 1“. haunt-work .ll' n |'4ti|l]l'l‘{[l -|l'l“l'i.i[ m.” S}'.~ll‘lll in .11l xlil'm'liuns \\iil lmn Inn-n |.ii4l will for llwtntllun, and il\ mm] l'l‘lli'llldllilll it), N). .. pm ”1..” “Hm“ .il lllllt'llltltl Slim-pt 4g.“ be [tl'w'vwlwl \\illl tl> occasion ll"lII-lllt|“. Slil'vl). .l~ ,\lr .‘vl\.l;i' \\nttltl My. "'l‘lli» in .illst winntni-II ~i‘nw'.”~-.| rim, vita. ‘ t.ll'lr‘l\l., llamtltvn .Innn ‘.'.

FARM LABOUR. | (To the Editor.) ' Sim—Farmers all over the Dominion are discussing the question of lal)our,‘, and a relative posted me a clip—ping from an Invercargill paiiel‘ 1‘0" porting the debate by the southlendt Farmers' Union on the question. Unel delegate said that. there were one or two form industries already under awards. The shearers’ award had worked satisfactorily, but the award for threshing workers had resulted in a reduction of the area cropped 111 Southlandi “The industry could not stand the cost oi" extravagant wages with re—duced hours. if that comes into oper—ation there will ineyitabiy come a day of reckoning," one delegate said. l‘ro\'ision for the regulation and limit—ation of hours could not be practic—able. A 55—hour week was the least that could be workable, and that would allow a man handling a team Saturdays and Sundays free. To townspeople these hours might seem long and the work hard, but they were intinilcly preferable to 110 or 118 hours cooped up On a stool in an oilice. The range of quality of available labour was another important factor. There was always, and always would be, good employment for good labour. The present system 01‘ employment was one of goodwill and teamwork be—tween employers and employees, but tlhat would be entirely upset by the institution of the ‘millionairc standard’ ‘l'or farm workers.“ , i thought these southern views ‘might be of interest to farmers in this district.——l am, etC., C. BUSSBRIDGE. Hamilton, June 2. l _— , BURDEN’S AND BENEFITS. t _— ‘ (To the Editor.) Sin—My compliments to Mr G. Hunter, for he is the tirst of your cor—respondents wilh whom I have been engaged who readily sees that, there are \‘ital differences between economic t rent and taxation. Others have noti been able to see a hole through a, ladder even when the steps were} knocked out for them. I As to my “accepting the fact" that , in tlic ilnal analysis the burden of tax—ation is at the expense of land values. 1 accepted that long ago, whcnl studied the free trade yersus protection policy~protertion is at the expense of land Values, and the “removal of all restrictions on trade,” a motion passed by the \\'aikato Farincrs‘ Union, would be an immense benetlt, but would quickly be capitalised in land values, as it always has been, every—where. incidentaily. this motion, taken to its logical conclusion, meant the abolition of the private appropria—tion of economic rent and the abolition of all taxation—but, of course, the Farmers’ Union members did not rea- - list: or mean that! t ; Mr Hunter says that a burden, like 7 taxation, is “willingly" passed on. Whether willingly or not, the fact ;remains that, except in an odd case of excessive profits, it “must"‘be passed on, otherwise the payer of the tax must go bankrupt. It is a case neither ,of will nor won't, but of inexorable teconomic fact. , The incident: of “benefits" Mr Huntter gives me is composed of “higher wages and shorter hours," meaning by that arbitrarily fixed wages and ‘hours; and he wants to know how tthese things in the town industries twill benefit the exporting farmersi ‘ Sir, these things are not benefits,t but burdens, and they will assuredlyt increase the load of unrecoverablei ‘costs on the backs of the t‘arnners,; land on all other backs for that matter, ‘ including the backs of those getting tthese alleged benetits. I have already , shown in your columns that under free land value conditions real wages could not be kept down by law (the infamous Statute of Labourers in England), and that under conditions, of monopoly access to land value real wages could not be kept up by law (New Zealand Arbitration Act). Mind you, I am all for a rise in real wages, but a mere money wage rise must be reilccted in higher prices, iinally making all concerned worse off than before, because wages come out of prices—no prices, no wages. Uaptain l“. Colbeck asks a correspondent how he is going to raise wages without raisin-5 prices. if they have no objection, i will "butt” in and answer that here, because it is ger—mane to this subject. There is nothing new about it, for Adam Smith showed how it could be done 150 years ago. ri'ako the economic rcut (barc land rental values) and royal—ties: use that i'und for revenue pur—poses, abolishing taxation, such as income taxes, Customs duties, sales and wages taxes, and you at once re—duce the cost of goods purchased, thereby raising real wages. That would be an immense benellt, but the cxamplc .\lr llunlcr sites is an ob\ious burden. Here are examples of economic llL‘Ilt'lltS: i\ railway constructed through fertile country to enable settlers to :u'cl their goods transported (:hcaply and quickly both ways, to and truth the towns and ports, is a tlt‘llcllL Likewise, slcamsliips and refrigerated space are lu-nrlits, and these two things, along with our reading syslcizu have done murh to create land values in .\‘c\\' aniand. \\'ill .\lr ilunter :If—l'l‘l‘tt that those spcrilir hcnviits i have nzum-d—wrumls. railways, steamsliips and rel’rig’crdlllrsiare benefits, and that the surplus Ytllltt‘r: of them ‘,"rcsl" in land \alucs‘.’ \\'c are in ,‘tgr-wuu‘ut in r 1 >2[|t‘t't ot' the (lii‘t'crcnrcs‘ ln-iwrrn cronwnir I‘cul and taxation. and it' we t'itll get this point illlnttl ln'uellls .unl lltll‘lli'lln u'll‘nrril up i \\ill tin-n plan-«ml lu llu- llt'\t suction of .\it' llunlrr‘s lctirr.~| .uu, l‘lt'” 'l', 11. _\lr.\lll.l..\.V. .\l.ll.ilu.ll:|. .lluw l. l’,<. 'l'liv- [t:l.~~lu: on into liiuvl \-lt|lt‘~ ul iu-nI-lils i~~_ lilu- lllr ~.lt|]l‘ lilln‘l':~\ with mutlrux him .I raw Ilwlllu-t' it: \\ill not" \\un'l. lull nt' jut, Himmli- I‘l’llilltEitll‘ ltw, |l(l\\l'\t'l' i'u. |ll|‘.:‘|:il:l lui‘ it"|'!tl'tl:ll|ll um) lr.~ {a :t,-r‘i~ in i-ltuiu: ll: \\tlit: {in y .Ai‘c‘ li"'.l*~t‘lt in will {ln- "up“ .i,-,.,..,H;1,\"t w'hvml. I out lit-t lvll‘II'llt; t.» .\lt" lltililw" llwrx. .‘rui l|-~l ‘liutxliL'd._t'lll‘i'.|tJ I'll!l|]lllilti ‘l'. 1,. \l- \l. I