HOUSING FOR THE AGED
»ir,-May i reply to your correspondents Barbara Mountier, P. M. Spencer, and A. H. Reed? Where we differ is in their assertion that New Zealand’s prosperity is such that our Government can not only afford to provide for the needy aged, but also continue to make large, and even increased contributions to the Colombo and Asian plans. The latter involves resort either to borrowed money (with our national debt at the peak of £816 million carrying £34 million annual interest, borne by a population of only 242 million); or to increased taxation. The former cannot be supported; and taxation has about reached the limit. Funds from government borrowing, and taxation, are for, and should be restricted to, internal governmental requirements, especially since the cost of everything has skyrocketed. Moreover, with the teeming millions of Asian lands increasing annually by about 30 million (three times the population of Australia), our, and our sisternations’, contributions cannot possibly stem the tide of increasing poverty and hunger. The first essential is birth control, as many publicists have stated; and the World Council of Churches has just now, also, emphasised this need. Unless these nations bring this about, financial aid from ourselves and others is mostly wasted. If financial help is to continue, then it should come from those European nations which exploited Asian territories in the past. New Zealand (and Australia) were not involved in this. If further help is to come from New Zealand, it should be by donations from the assets of those in favour of rendering that help. In conclusion, in every case it is not what we would like to do, but what we can properly do. Augustine Birrell put it more emphatically when ht said of a leading Labour politician, "He will allow his bleeding heart to get in the way of his bloody head!"
G. C.
CHALMERS
(Auckland).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 41, Issue 1052, 23 October 1959, Page 11
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314HOUSING FOR THE AGED New Zealand Listener, Volume 41, Issue 1052, 23 October 1959, Page 11
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