PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20258, 29 July 1937, Page 11

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 is essential that anonymous writers enclose their proper names ad a guarantee of good faith. Unless this rule Is complied with, their letters will not appear.

GUARANTEED PRICES.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —There Is at least ohe good point in the guaranteed price for butterfat. It assures that all companies start off scratch, and any variation in the payments to suppliers can only arise from the methods used in the manufacture. We have always been led to believe that as the quantity of raw material Increases so does the cost of manufacture diminish at a more or less fixed ratio. The publication of the various returns to suppliers by different companies makes very interesting reading to those engaged In the industry.—l am, etc., ONE OF THEM. Hamilton, July 27.

RISING COSTS,

(To the Editor.) Sir,—l am quite convinced that our members of Parliament are very illadvised as to the .bearing of rising costs to the farming community. This rise is not a very serious matter to the well-established man, on a fullydeveloped property, but the position is very different for the man who is developing the land. Posts have risen from £9 to £ls, battens from 8s per 100 to 22s 6d, wire, staples, etc., all show big advances, and implements and wages all add to the total, until at present It Is quite an unprofitable job to try to develop any farm land. If properties developed at the present time were bought at the cost of the work, plus a reasonable price for the land in the first place, it would be quite impossible for anyone to make ends meet at anything like the present guaranteed price for butterfat.—l am, etc., OLD GRAFTER. Melville, July 26.

IN SAMOA.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—When the present Government came into office it had two important posts to fill by appointment—that of the Commissioner of Police and the other that of Administrator of Western Samoa. After a long delay the first post was duly filled, but as yet the other has not been dealt with. The acting-Admlnistrator must now have held office for nearly two years, and that is hardly a fair thing. He should either be appointed to the position or another appointment should be made. I do not know If any financial saving has been made by the process followed, but it may have been a false economy. The acting-Admlnistrator has his own departmental duties to perform, so why not appoint an administrator? The Minister hastens to explain that there Is nothing political in the incidents that have happened recently, but since the Government took office nothing has been said about filling the vacant post. It seems strange.—l am, etc., UPOLU. Rotorua, July 26.

YOUNG MEN UNEMPLOYED.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —The idea of the Government subsidising young men of from 18 to 25 years by £1 a per week, while the employer has to pay 22s Gd and found, Is not going to meet with any success whatever. In the first, place, no young man from town, without previous experience, can possibly be worth the wages, without the subsidy, let alone tho additional £l, and a mere six months’ experience Is not going to make him worth it, by a long chalk. Why not give these young men a chanoe? If they can get £1 to 25s per week and found while they are learning the work they are well off, and if they have got any dash at all in them they would not be very long till there should bo a good demand for their services. No Government can possibly carry out a scheme whereby a man can be paid more than he is worth in the occupation in which he is employed, and a Government that tries this is riding for a fall. The full responsibility for the great number of young men on sustenance rests on the Government. It is the first time in the history of this country that such a disastrous state of affairs has existed. Away back at the time of the crisis in the Bank of New Zealand and the New Zealand Land Company, where there was literally no money in the country, there was never this frightful position as regards our young men, because they bucked in and took any job offering, and the greater percentage of them are those who have supported this country’ up to Ihe present lime. If we gave our young men a chance lo show their metal they would soon find a niche, for t hem selves as I Itelr fathers did before them.—l am, etc,, • E.C.TI. Hamilton. July 27

POLITICAL PROGRAMMES.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—T have seen lately several letters In the Times about political programmes, and I Ihink my ideas about them may he of interest to Ihe writers of these lelt-rs. For more than half a centurv 1 have followed tiie political affairs of New Zealand keenly and taken an active part in them as a private citizen. Tiie conclusion I have come to on revising my experience is that political programmes are the greatest pest we have in New Zealand, and have cost the people more than rabbits, ragwort, blackberries and all other noxious weeds put together. It is only necessary to subject these programmes to analysis to see the truth of this statement. Let us do a little analysis here and now. The great object of a political programme is to inveigle the people lo Vote for the party propounding the

programme, and this ran be done only by persuading the voters that this particular party can buy the people at tiie expense of the public purse more political gifts and economic, gauds than any other party in Hie market; and the politicians‘get away with it every lime. I have seen lids going on for fifty years, and 1 now see the result up to* date, a taxation of £*>’. a year on every man. woman, child and baby in the Dominion, if local body taxation is included. Me talk a lot of ■sentimental “tosh” about ttic need for a higher birthrate, but what kind of a welcome to a newcomer is the throwing of £24 a year on his back tiie moment he draws his first breath? 1 shall be accused of talking extrava - gant nonsense, but look at the history of the past two year* and judge if my

■' argument is not in the main quile sound. Among Ihe many good things promised us by the Labour Party when in search of voles were the abolition ■ of the sale-; lax. reduction of the 25 per cent, exchange, which ads as a duly on imports, ami a general redue- ■ lion in taxation. That was promise. ’ taxation of more Ilian I'3 per head, and now an official inlimation Dial there will be no alleralion in Ihe exchange rate and no abolilhm of Ihe sales tax. Yet we have people clamouring for more political programmes. As for me. I am absolutely fed up with them.— I am. etc.. a. wAiuiuirru.N. Ng&ruawahia, July 27.