PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20737, 22 February 1939, Page 9

PUBLIC OPINION

As expressed by correspondents, whose letters are welcome, hut for whose views we have no responsibility. Correspondents are requested to write in ink. it is essential that anonymous writers enclose their proper names as a guarantee of good faith. Unless this rule is complied with, their letters will not appear.

COMPENSATING PRICE To the Editor) Sir,—When Mr Johnstone claimed that, a policy of giving equal treatment to primary'and secondary industries was both “unsound" and “impracticable*’ I think I proved to his satisfaction that the policy-was sound in the truest sense of the term and practicable. His latest, complaint, however, is that such a policy is “unjustified." I have already pointed out that a high living standard depends on the national efforts being guided into the most productive channels rather than into the least productive, and this fact has been admitted by Mr Johnstone. If the maintenance of the standard of living is not sufficient justification for Mr Johnstone, then I am afraid I cannot help him further.—l am, etc., G. HUNTER. Horsham Downs, February 2i MONETARY REFORM 'To the Editor! Sir. —Replying to both Mr Young and “Puzzled.” who charge me with knowing nothing about Douglas Credit, I say this flues not speak well for eight years of propaganda. 1 have read parcels of this literature and endured a plethora of words from fanatical followers. I think it was Carlyle who said that theories were merely hypotheses, most of which were useless, as they failed to fix themselves in practice. 1 view Douglas Credit in that light, and to me it would mean extreme socialistic control plus in flat ion. Ignorant 1 may be, but is not Mr Young arrogantly so when he talks of all the efforts of British statesmen as ‘piffling’* ? Regarding Mr Young’s £IOO.OOO. he says It is quite unnecessary to print notes. Well. I guess by the time that sum was distributed to the sellers of produce for Spain a mighty lot of bank notes would be issued. Counterfeiting is a crime to which is attached a penalty of seven years, and in effect is the same as printing bank notes with no wealth backing.

To “Puzzled” 1 would say there is nothing incongruous either in my attitude to the compensated price or >n the Hon. A. Hamilton’s atittude. This simply means compensating the farmer for ever-increasing costs. If the farmer does not receive this he must go to the wall. Mr Nash showed most clearly in cutting approximately 3d

off the price recommended by his committee last year that our vital industry is not recognised as such by the Labour Government. Rut the Douglas Credit formula is . a very different thing.

I must also correct “Puzzled” in bis remarks about Professor Algie. Tbe fact that under the last Government there were some instances of government by Order-in-Council does not justify the practice; two blacks do not make a white.

The Freedom Association which Mr Algie represents is not pledged to any party, and if the Nationalists were in power and by legislation infringed the rights of the people they would have Mr Algie and his association down on them, and rightly so. As regards the National Party, both Labourites and Douglasites are ever and anon crying “stinking fish.” but they need not worry—the National Party is going along nicely, like Disraeli when be shook his fists at. members in the House of Commons and said: “You won’t hear me now, but the time will come when you will hear me.”—l am, etc;.

W. P. KENAH. Raglan, February 20.

BRITISH ISRAEL LECTURE

(To the Editor) Sir, —I attended the British Israel meeting in the State Theatre, and I wish to point out a few errors. Abraham was not a Hebrew: he was a Chaldean or Babylonian. The River of Egypt, the boundary of the Promised Land, was not the Nile. The River of Egypt had its source in the wilderness of Paran and emptied into the Mediterranean Sea near El Arish. That is why the Israelites had to travel from the land of Goshchen, near the Nile, and cross the Red Sea to get to the Promised Land.

The British Empire is one nation of Gentiles, black, white, red, yellow and brown men, and so is America. If you read the Book of Hosea you will find Ephraim represents the mother of harlots, who all eventually will be His people. The Kaiser has as much proof to be German Israel as what Rritish Israel has. or how can you explain the Houses of Brunswick, Hanover and Saxe Coburg Gotha, our line of kings?

Gog (Ezekiel xxxviii) means high mountain or proud church system, which was stated as building the palace of its tabernacles between the seas on the Mount of Olives (Daniel xi, 45). The birthright was for the line of descent down to the birth of Jesus Christ. The promise was to the One seed of Israel, not many seeds, and that seed is Christ. Paul’s “Ye must he horn again” was quoted, which means you must he literally recreated with a different body with the same breath of life. “That which is flesh is flesh and that which is spirit 's spirit.” Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. “The body thou sowest is not the body that shall be.” The first creation of man is from dust The second creation of man is spiritual, the same as the Lord from heaven, whom Paul saw as one horn out of due time. The thousand years of peace on earth is after the resurrection. Jesus told His disciples that in the regeneration or recreation of mankind they would sit on thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel, which means a rule of righteousness with all evil restrained over the whole of the c: 1dren of the resurrection. The Sermon on the Mount was mentioned, and it says. Do not pray in public; pray in secret.—l am. etc., HARRY GORE. Hamilton East, February 21.

FREEHOLD AND LEASEHOLD (To the Editor! Sir, —Regarding freehold and leasehold. I think it is a well-known fact that the New Zealand farmers are a very progressive lot. In my opinion this has a lot to do with the freehold, which certainly brings out the best in Dm people, and they nut hack money for improvements which otherwise would not tie done. My knowledge of flip older countries’ conditions i« that the tenants will not spend money, neither will the landlord, to any great extent, so things remain more or less unprogressive. We know both systems have their failings.—l am. etc,. FARMER’S WIFE. Motumaoho, February 20 VARIETIES OF LOTUS 'To the Editor) Sir.—From the experience of your correspondent Mr R. Johnstone, 1 am sure he lias been dealing with Lotus coniculolus. a Loins so very similar lo Lotus angustisumus that anyone can readily be excused for making the mistake. II infested the Wairoa and Manurewa districts 40 years ago. Stock will not eat if except in its

early growth. Lotus major is usually , more or less in angus seed, but as i stock relish it and it has its place in j general seed mixtures il is welcome. I

t think Mr Johnstone will agree with me that most of us have been, and slill are, farming the minerals out of our land, and we are now paying Ihe penalty Nature exacts when we abuse her laws. Go where you like, you will see first-class land carrying a third-rate pasture, usually stocked with first-class stock that have no hope of filling the demands made on them, as the pastures have not the stability to keep the stock’s vitality normal. That is the class of first-class land that would benefit by a crop of Lotus angustisumus. We would thus use Nature's way of replenishing nitrogen, also humus, by the ton. and by its marvellous action opening up the ground with its penetrating root system it leaves heavy clay land, or even kauri mounds, in such a friable condition that one could successfully plant a kitchen garden after a growth.

For a cost of about £2 an acre at to-day’s prices you can get rid of every weed in your paddock, as weeds never see daylight under the prolific growth. Get a heavy crop for ensilage or hay and you can feed it off right, through winter, until the end of November. Plough it in. sow, and be sure of a heavy crop of turnips or rape: or take a crop of soft turnips and have your land in first-class condition lo receive seed that will he able to produce a pasture that will not only protect your stock’s health but, through the stock, your own. There is not an acre of second or thirdclass land in New Zealand that, cannot be brought into profitable production at to-dav’s wages and the variety of up-to-date implements to work the land on a gigantic scale. We could

sow' Lotus angustisumus, cut and stack ensilage and hay and thus employ thousands of men now unemployed. ‘By using this method of bringing land into production thousands of families could be settled at low' overhead expense, and I hope to see the powers that be getting busy at once with a huge land-settlement scheme

on the above lines to show' what a Labour Government can do. They could rear the stock necessary to stock the farms created, giving the prospective settler a herd at low cost. On a patch of gumland at Henderson I grew a crop of Hickory King maize 12 feet high and on one cob a neighbour counted 576 grains. The angus grown was ploughed in in October. Thousands of hands want acres, and we have hundreds of thousands of acres wanting hands, so where is the excuse for all the unemployed?—l am, etc., W. P. SEATON. Hamilton, February 21 BIRTH CONTROL (To the Editor) Sir,—Your correspondent Mr Marcus St. B. James seems to have said all he can say on the subject of birth control, but seemingly that fact would not stop him. Incidentally he has said quite a number of rude things to those who do not agree with his point of view', and, further, he is most illogical In many of his statements. It does not seem to have entered his mind that although the heads of the Roman Catholic Church are justified in telling the adherents of that Church that birth control is most certainly deemed a sin by the Church which they have faith in, the matter ! assumes a'n entirely different aspect i to the many adherents of other churches, and especially so to the big i majority of people who are not ad- I herents of any of the churches. I cull the following from a letter by Mr James to your issue dated February 15: “Further, we are not discussing, natural laws of birth control, but a pernicious evil intention or motive in the modern mind of female humanity, etc.” This is surely a gratuitous insult to thousands of women. What right has Mr Marcus St. B. James to suggest that unless any and every woman subscribes to his limited view’s nn birth control she is “filled with pernicious evil intentions”? Tn the name of common sense, Mr .Tames slop writing such puerile nonsense. Here is another quotation from the same letter: *My opponent ‘Face Facts. Not Fancy’! stressed the welfare of the individual, yet by supporting birth control he is supporting something which is destroying manhood and womanhood. mentally, physically and spiritually.” If there were any reason in this statement it would naturally follow that those who do practise birth control in 1 heir small families would have children who were “mentally, physically and spiritual}” defective. Can Mr James produce any conclusive proof that such results do follow from birth control? If not, he stands condemned as writing a lot of rubbish. On the question of spirituality I fear that, his views make nr. appeal 'o me. Throughout rny long life I have known many who prated a lot about spirituality, but who were entirely lacking in sympathy with the material wellbeing of their fellow-men. Ad- f

mittedly there are a few —very few'— splendid individuals who arc not unduly depressed by lack of material things, because spiritual influences make a great appeal to them, but, speaking generally, it seems a sheer mockery to preach of the need to develop the spiritual side of their natures to the millions who are unemployed, and the much larger number who, we are told, are underfed. The Pope who has just passed on fully realised, as do the supreme heads of the Roman Catholic Church, that in declaring birth control to be a sin they are logically forced to support a policy of a more equal distribution of the real wealth of the world. That fact is incontrovertible, and. . speaking generally, the heads of that | church have expressed that view I honestly and sincerely. The plain fact is that those who 1 may indulge ip birth control are not j just a lot of sol fish, sinful individuals, I as your correspondent seems lo glory j in calling them, but frequently very i much the reverse. And, one*’, again, I in: ke in. a pun cry for saving: “Stop it, Marcus, and try and get back to first things first.”—l am, etc., JOHN SYKES. j New Plymouth, February 20.