The Member for Timaru.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18229, 13 November 1924, Page 6

The Member for Timaru.

\fr F. J. Kollcston, the member for Timaru, was on sound ground when, in his post-sessional address on Tuesday, he was dealing with the perils of over-borrowing. For every loan floated by the Government theoretically sound reasons can be given, and for most of ita loans there can be found a practical justification. But the time is near when a more rigid test must bo applied than the ultimate reproductive power of the expenditure for which loans are raised —when it will hardly bo good business to increase the public debt except for purposes immediately productive of new wealth. As for the local bodies, it can hardly be denied that they have begun to borrow too, freely, and Mr Eolleston is doing a good sorvicc to the country in calling attention to this fact* But one cannot equally praise his protest against the reduction of taxation. It is not clear whether his objection to lower taxes is based upon a feeling that the Government should endeavour "to pay off some of the war dobt out of revenue or upon a belief that it is unwise to reduce taxation-in the face of the possibility that higher taxation may become necessary at some future time. He took both grounds in the course of his speech. The second ground does not require serious treatment, and as for the first, it is not easy to see what is to be gained by paying off old debts and incurring new ones. In any case, if the Government were to maintain a high rate of taxation, Mr RolJeston would see his Radical friends clamouring,, as they have clamoured already, for the. dispersal of the surplus revenue amongst public servants and others. Apart from the primary fact that the less the State takes for ordinary governmental purposes the better it is for the country, there is the* special consideration that in this Dominion, where so many people are dependent upon the Treasury, large surpluses ought to be avoided. Nothing that Mr Kolleston said gives us any eause to doubt the soundness of t lie theory that the Government should aim at keeping down both taxation and expenditure. Perhaps Mr , Eolleston's constituents were more interested, however, in his explanation of his own position in Parliament than in his survey of.the legislation of the past session. Everyone admires a politician who has clear convictions anjl acts upon them', and the meimber for Timaru is generally respected for his sincerity and ability. But the free-lance in politics is not of very much practical use. The party system cannot claim any Divine ordination, and there is no covenant to uphold it; Bot it is an inevitable product of the nature of political man. If it could have been got rid of, it would have disappeared long ago. It survives because it is the only method by which political institutions can work., A man may prefer to be an independent, but in refusing to accept the obligations of party allegiance he is cutting himself off from the means of making the most effective use of his talents.