AIMS OF GOVERNMENT.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 566, 22 July 1909, Page 6

AIMS OF GOVERNMENT.

A 8 DR. FINDLAY BEE 3 THEM.

THE "WASTES" OF OUR SOCIAL ■■' '' SYSTEM. ; . ..■ .■'.■'- . AND THE TREND OF THE TIMES."Tho first aim of sfovornment Is to Improve tho people, not their natural product. The product will follow their improvement." This was how tho Attorney-General (Dr. Firidlay), speaking at Duncdin last night, summed up what he described as tho now ideals of modern domocratie government. Fifty years ago (ho said) tbo prevailing conception of tbo functions of government was that part of it should enforce the law By poKoo and judges; that there should bo refusal to. interfere with competition or free contract; , that government should favour those tendencies wiich helped to increaso tho natoonal moomo or support that party whoso policy treated inorcaso in wealth, (not decrease ia want) as tho true test of national progress. Ihat^ theory of government made fetish, with tho result that Jiritaui, wtato growing rapidly in weal* and industrial greatness, obtained those results by an equally rapid nod widespread demoralisation of- tho industrial classes.' Such a conception of government accompanied, if it did not produce, a callousness and ■indifferencek> tno squalor, degradatic-n. and eufforinu which was tho price tho nation paid for its' material progress. But it Tiad; now come nome to the minds -and breasts of tho people m over clearer view, tliat national "wealth" may accumulate, yet men decay,',' tl\at civilisation not to, bo measured, by :monev bags, tba.t fhe price of the soujs and bodies ot groat numbers of men, women, and children was too 'high a one to pay for even the industrial ascendancy of tie whole, world.' And-so a silent oooan current-of sentiment had turned away from the old conception of tho State as judge and policeman , to tho nowor conception of-ijt as parent-from the old idea that society was a collection of atoms of individna-ls to be left to struggle as best it could in,unrestricted' competition,to tho npw idea that tie powers of man and nature .ought to he" utilised for tho good and betterment o| .society as a,n organic whole, and that gove-minent should actively aim at g $ an u bstterl "ent as.its. Vcatest' ideal. No nobler or more couraraous policj. been-attempted in tho Old World than that had set l f O o r rh; S?nt GoVCraffient ° f Englalld

The Creat Waste of Work, Capital, and Soil. Whilst national wealth, its pr 0 : miction, and increase, were of the greatest importance, statesmen no longer male that ob ect paramount, but desired to attain it only or chiefly by reducing the prevailing With regard .to-fte waste of worlc, , which was felt less m New Zealand probably than ekewW that waste might bo either actual or potential-ra waste not only of the-wealth such work could produce, but a waste in the physical, moral, and technical character of the men themselves. One of the teste of a good Government was how far,its policy was effective to reduce that, waste.' Most of the actual waste of capital was due to blunderinga management, hare-brained enterprises, and suicidal competition. Although the capital so wasted in New Zealand was appalling, the Government could do little to check it. It could not bo, too often impressed that ono otHhe worst "enemies the workers had was the incompetent employer. ment could, not impose, antecedent tests of qualification, j but it could and should (through its , bankruptcy..' laws) provide oitective disqualifications and penalties for those , who were utterly, incompetent to conduct business, and thereby-wasted, not only then- own .butylargelquantitjes. ofythcir creditors., capital, m '.and: careless management; .another ]tj nc | uf waste-of-capital;which -the State could do much,to'.check: and.reduce. That was the waste;of. non-use as well as; the- waste of mis-use. It. should-, be tho'.steady aim-'of government . to. make capital.' available' to those without it who desired, and were competent, to. productively use it. , There was also.the, waste ,of land, which was tho greatest source, of waste from which' every country—New Zealand among tho number— suttered; He contrasted tho position in the case of large v areas, if used as preserves for came,: as, sheep and cattle stations, with the position when they were divided, into small settlements.' To estimate jAe full benefit to tho community- caused By close settlement,, one 'must consider' how the settlers would, Jiaye fared if the land had not ■' been for/ . them. •.Might they not have;been crowded in poverty in some.city?- Could there be. any better or greater purpose of State action than that of strenuously qhecking -the appalling wastfl which resultwl from a raonopbly or > selfish misuse, or non-use , of the soil? Hence the resumption of large estates, and the close settlement of these, and of the Crown lands was a cardinal aim of government. , , . . , > To Prevent Waste of Wealth. 'With regard to, the Waste'of wealth, Dr. Fihdlay declared that public opinion on the question of personal freedom, had undergone profound change. The tendency of the times r-too marked -to bo ignored—was towards a limitation of personal freedom to such, acts and to such spheres as best suited social welfare.. There was a growing and widespread sentiment that, in the same , city, or even country, ; in which; men, women, and children (and especially women and children) were: starving, gorgeous • luxury and wasteful extravagance'on the, part of the rich was more than a moral failing—it was a social crime. ' Tlie dij would come—nay, was not so far off—when in the great povertyhaunted metropolis of London,' the announcelneufthat "Mrs. Millionaire" spent on' her last- aight' s' gorgeous function £10,000 would arouse no sentnnent of respect—but one of widespread indignation, and disgust. Tho, sooner that day. came, the better for the people of England.. Perhaps tho best practicable means in the hands of tho State toreduce extravagance was to reserve, in the, shape of. death duties, a-con-siderable portion:of the: weatlh'-so. wasted. But legislation / could not go very far towards tho root of the evil. It was to the growth arid control of social sentiment against wasteful extravagance, rather than to direct legislation, that one must look to check, that kind of waste. Ho believed that the standards of respectability in New Zealand were growing less -material, and moro intellectual and-ethical. It was the proper sim of government to check waste on articles of consumption which tended to impair a mans fitness industrially, mentally, and morally. Besides preventing waste in .demoralising pleasures) it. should furnish healthful amusement or occupation for .'the leisure of the people. The State might also subsidise, and so enoour/ige, thrift. Lastly, the .reduction of waste in life, health, wealth, and work, could bo powerfully, nromoted by an increased and' . fairer distribution of wealth. Although a difficult task, fraught with-pitfalls aud perils, there was no reason why it should not be .attempted. In New Zealand steps had already • been taken in that direction by limitation of area, graduated land tax, etc. The next-forward step must bo a review and amendment of the Death Duties Act to: check, as far as possible, huge, estates passing, on the. dcatli ,or the owner, undivided, or jn great part; to some ono man, or, woman. In cmiclusion; Dr. . Pindlay remarked that the aims, of democratic government should., be found in the agencies which would reduce waste, in tho directions which' he hod jsdicated.