The Press Tuesday, December 2, 1930. Courage and Economy.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20100, 2 December 1930, Page 10

The Press Tuesday, December 2, 1930. Courage and Economy.

In a recent letter to The Times Dr. T. E. Page, whose name is perhaps more familiar to students of the classics than of politics or economics, exclaimed against the intolerable growth of taxation. Ever since tho war endedj thoso who, claiming to be statesmen, should bo our guardians have all, without distinction of Party, or o£ person, acted with a total disregard of common sense. Though it was clearer than daylight that in a country already half bankrux>t the first of necessities, the foremost condition of recovery, was tho exercise of the strictest public economy, their conduct has been exactly tho reverse. They have shut their eyes to plain facts (alas for the sheep when t'a«3 shearer cannot see!); they have flung about millions where a generation ago men abler than themselves handled thousands with respect, and made a mockery of that thrift which is not only a great virtue bnt also "a. great revenue," as Tacitus told us long ago when he wrote: Alagnum vectigal est parsimonia. . . . What 13 the cause of all this? I hesitate to ascribe it altogether to lack of intelligence, and it seems rather to proceed from a complete absence of that political courage which is one of tho most necessary qualifications for true statesmanship. This conclusion, which is quite sound, brings Dr. Page up against a disturbing problem. For if popular support ean only be won by promises and what are in effect bribes, and if candidates or Parties brave enough to tell voters that they must '' receive less and do " more" have no chance, then Parliament must become " more and more a. " collection of either rash fanatics or " adroit tricksters." It is unnecessary to decide exactly how far the formation of this collection has gone, either at Home or in New Zealand; it is enough to agree with Dr. Page that the danger is " not by any means un- " real." But it is also possible to agree with him that the nation, in spite of " trials, temptations, and lures," remains at heart " "wise and under- " standing" enough to listen to the truth, and that politicians might safely utter it, as they ought. This is interesting in New Zealand, because of course the tendency here has been the same, the danger is the same, and there is the same need to make a stand against both and the same hope of its succeeding. In the end, tho public treats politicians as they deserve, and the strong and steadfast ones have the highest desert. They fail when they begin to fear defeat and to try to avert it by bidding up for popular support, and when they are afraid to call for stern but necessary sacrifices which their opponents will promise to spare the people. This failure, of constancy and courage, is not new, though the immense and rapid growth of State services of every kind has provoked it in a form so extreme as almost to be new; bnt it is striking that Dr. Page should use a phrase—" courage "in politics " —which Coventry Patmore used as the title of one of his essays, over forty years ago. What he said in it is even more striking and well worth recalling:

Had the Conservatives, during the last twenty-five years, shown themselves above being frightened by a temporary loss of office, they would now, almost beyond doubt, have been in a strong and independent majority, with no necessity for adopting pillage as a, principle. But -when the pinch has come they have, of late years, always thrown over principle and shown themselves ready to purchase a continuance of place by measures in excess of the most revolutionary proposals of their adversaries. Almost all the Radical measures of this period have been passed directly by or through the connivance of frightened Conservatives. . . . The failure of courage in the Conservative Party has been followed by failure of insight and intellectual ability. Men lose the power of seeing the truth when they drop the custom of obeying it—that is to say, when they cease to be ready, if called upon, to make personal sacrifices for it. The habit of courage, once lost, is very hard of recovery, and the loss of a reputation for it is still more difficult to overcome.

New Zealand has reached its present dangerous position through the operation of several causes besides political cowardice, though that cannot be overlooked; but if it remains there, as it does, in actually increasing danger, the want of political courage is almost solely to blame. And this want is at once proved and measured by the height of taxation. Everybody knows that the country is shamefully overtaxed, which means that it is spending more than it can afford, and spending the money on things that can and should be done without. Yet the Government has not taken a single firm step towards economy, whether in reducing its own expenditure to safe limits or by assisting producers otherwise to lower their costs. The explanation of this failure, disastrous in every way, is quite simple. The Government has not been ignorant or helpless or oven eareless. It has been afraid.