CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 133, 25 July 1941, Page 4

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

years (to 1935) had placed this fine Dominion heavily in pawn, and how he suggests we can extricate ourselves under the financial system to which he subscribes? My own view Is that we can onty honourably extricate oursielves by a cessation i,t overseas borrowing. If we are to continue under the existing system then let us pawn the country to our - selves* and pay the interest to ourselves. The heavy exchange should in itself dictate this policy;. Nothing tends to so heavily encroach on our sterling or deplete our treasury as the payments of the periodic high drafts of interest that threatens to engulf us and hold posterity in fin-i ancial bondage in perpetuity. The Unconscionable demand in respect to the £10,000,000 should illustrate this policy and impel us to halt before is is too Jate.

In conclusion I would like to fer again to the criticism by the member for Tauranga of the Dominion's war effort. The Govern' ment took office in 1935. The territorial system had been finally and to all intent and purposes obliterated by the Hon Mr Cobbe one of Mr Doidge's colleagues. We had no aerodromes, guns, ammunition, uniforms or soldiers. We were practically undefended. In record time the pre* sent Government have built modern aerodromes and buildings and military buildings generally that are a credit to the industry capacity and foresight of the Hon. Semple. This work has been done by the most modern methods at a minimum of cost. The accommodation training find transport of our soldie>rsi has been a credit to the Minister of Defence. The Tauranga aerodrome is evidence'—if evidence were necessary —of the capacity and foresight of the Hon. Semple representing as it does one of the finest and cheapest 'dromes in the country. Useful constructive nnd fair criticism should be encouraged, in fact it is imperative, but provocative captions and hostile criticism should be deprecated. Our Empire is passing through the most flangerous period in our history and ft behoves us all'—especially men In public life—to use a sense of proportion in their criticism and "fe s ve credit where credit is due." Yours etc., CL H. BURNETT. Tauranga 19/7/41.

Sir, —A friend-.lras forwarded tSe . copy of the 'BEA.GON containing a report "of the speech of Mr Doidge, M.P., at Edgecumbe. I' am not concerned with the reference made by Mr Doidge in regard to the: statement allegedly made to him by a returned soldier "that our soldiers in Greece could not a result of Government Dominion," excepting to say people to-day demand the facts arifi that the cards be placed on 'the takOe face up. If Mr Doidge was 531 possession of this statement his plain duty was to place it before the Government and the "War Cab- " inet" in particular and not make it the subject of a "hear say" political "bomb shell" at Edgecumbe without any regard for the .credibility. The real purpose of tho member for Tauranga's criticism was obviousf.y t«» belittle Government policy in re-

gard to the war effort and in particular in regard to the establishment of a "Rifle Range" at Tauranga. I do not hold a brief for the Government, but I do hold a. brief for i?a;ir play. I have not hesitated to say that many 1 of the things the Gov. eminent have done—and particular* ly not done—have not met with mv approval but Mr Doidge's criticism In regard to the Range" question at Tauranga was only half lh« story and that half was a misrepra. sentation of the facts. The facts are that in 1937 the question of a new rifle range for Tauranga- became acute owing to the old range be* coming untenable largely due. tho danger to "boat craft" 1 in the ftarbour. I brought the urgency of the proKtem before the Minister and ha At once said that if a suitable sits could be procured the Government were prepared at once to purchasa the site. The local authorities of the Club together with the Depart* mental Officer inspected every* sitr offering. Personally I made two trips to Tauranga to inspect sites. Obviously a suitab'le rifle range site both geographically and from the point of view of the public safety presents difficulties. However afte* Very active steps, being taken to secure a site one was selected and recommended. The farmer owners objected and other objections were also made to the selected site by

other interests. The point I desire to make however is that the Govern- . ment were always ready and willing to purchase a site and Mr Doidgefs statement that the Government preferred to waste money on unnecessary public buildings to buying a rifle range—for T'auranga was as unfair as it was'untrue. In his speech. Mr Doidge also made reference ta the Dominion's finances and repeated. his "Well worn" statement that the country cash boxes were empty —that the Treasury had exploited* all the means of taxation and ha<| mortgaged the future etc. etc. etc. My reply is that the wealth of a country is not reflected in the amount of money in the "casht boxes'" or in the sterling funds Shutin. the Primary and Secondary duction and exports generally—in the capital goods and works and the industry and services of its people. The Budget cftearly ; discloses quite a different picture Mr Doidge suggested. The of the Dominion were never so boyant. Our Primary and Secondary production despite the fact that thousands of our young men are away—constitutes a maximum production m the history of the Dominion not only in volume but in value. The: financial year closed with a ssurplust in the Treasury of £1,750',000 —with out 1 sterling in London round £20,000,000 while (since 1935) the Government have paid £5,716,000 off the nor'mjßf national debt and have met all th& instalments in respect to the unconscionable demands made in London in respect to the 1939 000) debt repayment loan. With r&> Card to Mr Doidge's statement that c.he Government had mortgaged the future, the fact of a reduction of £5,716,000 in the actual debt speaks for itself. Mr Doidge could vith seme degree of accuracy have dilated on how Governments over tha (Continued in previous, column)