AN OVER-SENSITIVE PREMIER.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 43, 14 November 1907, Page 6

AN OVER-SENSITIVE PREMIER.

Thr Leader of tie Opposition aroused the ire of the Premier during Tuesday's sitting. of the House by a reference to the borrowing propensities' of the .'Government. ~ Mjv. .Massey pointed out that under various Acts the Government had taken authority to borrow something like three million pounds during the current year, and he uttered the usual warnings as to the responsibility resting on the Government to see that the money was borrowed in the best market, and used to the best advantage. We must confess that, apart from a suggestion that the Colonial Treasurer would have been more frank with the House if he had brought down all his borrowing proposals in one Bill, Mr. Massey's remarks appear to ,us, to have been of an unusually' mild nature. Sir Joseph Ward, however, was in a particularly sensitive mood. Possibly like the rest of the> members, he is feeling the strain of the session's work, and he described the speech as an alarmist one,«and with some warmth set out to show how extremely careful the Government was in the matter of borrowing. It is not our intention on this occasion to go into the pros and cons of this question. We are not concerned at the moment with the merit or demerit of the Government's methqds of finance. But we must enter an emphatic protest against the attitude of the Colonial Treasurer in attempting to burke legitimate investigation of the Dominion's affairs by an exaggerated pretence that such investigation will do the Dominion harm in some imaginary quarters. His own sensitiveness on the point is much more calculated to have an injurious effect than such wise counsel as points the need for proper care and economy in administering the finances of the country.