The Acid Test.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20101, 3 December 1930, Page 10

The Acid Test.

These are the days of adversity in which the man who saved his money and did not spend all his income is secure, while the spendthrift is in many cases on the rocks. It is a test of the character of our men and women and of the whole structure of our civilisation. Necessarily also it reveals the weakness of a system of government by Party and by politicians who have no security of tenure, and who in order to avoid shipwreck have to trim their sails to every political wind, and their country's income to the demands of every pressing elector. A correspondent to-day suggests that the politicians should be replaced by Commissioners, though he is not sure how to persuade them to retire. No one is. Even Mr Downie Stewart cannot persuade the three Parties to put their heads together and appoint the best men available to put things right. They will not be persuaded. It is like asking all men to give up a percentage of their salaries and wages so that our exports can be produced at a price the rest of the world is prepared to pay for them. They approve, but leave it to the other fellow. Yet we are being driven into a corner, and the acid test of adversity may make us do all of these unpalatable things whether we approve of them or do not. After all, they are only common sense, and it would be better to do them now and get started on the upward road before adversity drives us further down. It is for the politicians to show the way by reducing their own salaries and the expenditure of many overstaffed Departments. They must also put a stop at once to expenditure on works which will be a burden for ever on this longsuffering community.