The Dominion. TUESDAY, JULY. 6, 1909. FEELING THE PINCH.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 552, 6 July 1909, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, JULY. 6, 1909. FEELING THE PINCH.

The first' thought that will occur ;to those who take a real interest in politics, when they read the statement made by

Me.' Millar yesterday, on what he admits is an undoubted crisis of unemployment, will .be a ,conjecture as to what would have been said by Sir Joseph Ward if he had been hero to meet the deputation. It is easy to ( imagine the two columns of irrelevaneies, concealments, attacks upon "the .croakers," and unlimited • assurances as to the' future which in such a. case would have been showered on the deputation, Mr. Millar, is deserving of credit, for his preference for candour. It could not have been a pleasant task for him to', inform tho deputation of the truth ; .which Mb chief "has bent all his energies to concealing—to admit that the Public Works Fund will got "very little, if any, assistance'' 1 'from the Consolidated Fund this year; that -it is "impossible to go on at;the,present rate ofexpencliture"; that the contains a: possibility of "further borrowing or increased, taxation";'; that "where all the money,'; that was wanted was' going 'to cdmo'from- he' did not know"; that "it waß ! absolutely impossible/for the' Government/ with tho money; at 'their command, to find .work for everybody who desired it"; that there was "undoubtedly '[, a,crisis."We should have heard nothing of this if the. pßiiiu (Minister had not,fled, away;- we should, j indeed, have had furious denials of every;! one; of ,these st'a temen tsVif they ha'd ■ been made'by, say,;, ; THE Dominion. Accordingly the public is indebted to ,-Mn. Millar- for his frank speech, as.it has been inJcbred to him for' similar frank speech in the past. He is the only member of tho Ministry who has preached caution —"I am pessimistic enough," he said on February 19 last, f'to say that the- barometer points to the need for caution"—and who has admitted in effect that it is in the Government's own borrowing methods that the real danger to the public credit resides. Nor can' it,'bo affirmed that Mr. Millar has been 'accessory to his Government's extravagance.

'• The' position of the• .Government .is' a ■voryßorry the borrjer because tho PEiMi;;MiNiBTBB has up ; to>theVlaat /p'rote's^ied■'ihat^ : aU' ; •is;yeli.^v;Th«■ : i merit simply cannot 'find work for every'body;;who desires it, Bays' Mr. /Millar. The: Prime Minister must have known the condition of the-finanoes when ho ■told 'an Auckland 'deputation in i' Fpbru,'ary last'that ''work' would-be 'found on > reprbduqti ve 'work's 1 ' for all .''who : wishe'd \to V take, i i-The ; igrbss^.extrayagance.' of 'the past three years, and of.the past year' 'in particular, has ihiade it impossible.to obtain anything for public works put; of the'/Consolidated' Fund. ; Even the surplus of £183,000. odd is not available. The result is. that the' Government 'can only provide a thing of shreds' and a limited number of little "jobs,", such as: : the, painting of. one or; ; two '-.■ State buildings, the:, "stumping" 'of: a 'little 'State farm,, and' a little scheme, of bushfelfirigiT.'Tie plain fact of the::mattev, is that: thej.Government is hard! up, hard-up.vriot throughunavoidable mis-: but through its /own deliberate folly.-. It is .'over''a year ; t since the .first loud 'warning of impending trouble came, from America.' Careful people; saw/ that trouble was, coming,! before the financial year 1908-9 opened. Yet, fie Government threw the public money away more furiously tha,ri ever. Even if the .Government had not brought : its expenditure.'below the level of' .i907-8-T-cven. if it: had only kept.it at the;outrageous.figure of. that 'year—there would have been oyer half a million, availably to-day which;is gone...

Unpleasant'as the position is, it is not so bad in its immediate effects as if would have been, if tho., thousands who have left the country in tho last few months were still here. The. crisis will pass, of course. As Mn. Millar says, rather pathetically, "the spring will bring brighter times." The export values are happily increasing. The outlook is not black, however severe the present crisis may be.' In the meantime tho local bodies and tho public must do whatever is possible. To make suggestions to a Government that has run out of funds would be a waste of time. The public will do well to draw the proper lesson from the present situation, which is the unwisdom of permitting a continuance of the conditions of administration that' make a serious crisiß of unemployment possiblo in a country that is by nature far richer in resources thai) any other country of equal magnitude. With the return-of blue skies the old round will begin again. Heavy borrowing, thoughtless i extravagance—and, unless this is checked, eventually 'a more serious crisis than ' ever. Remove the temptation to go wrong, and the country cannot fail to flourish. Nothing would be easier than for Parliament to vote a large loan for public works when it meets in October. But it is to be hoped that ,any extravagant proposal of this kind will be resisted. Diet and sound living, and not drugs, arc what the country's health requires.