A MINISTER'S CURIOUS IDEAS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 589, 18 August 1909, Page 4

A MINISTER'S CURIOUS IDEAS.

The Hon. R. M'Kenzie seems to have brought a new theory of propriety into the Ministry with him. .He was, ontertained at a banquet in Balclutha on Saturday night, and wound it up by a furious outburst against a fellow-guest, Me. James Allen. But it is not Me. M'Kenzie's mannere that we deßire ,, to notice here. Wo are much more interested in some of his political obsorvations. It is generally admitted, we I think, to be a self-evident fact that by announcing, the ■ necessity. . for -saving £250,000 yearly in the State Departments the Government admitted that 'it has been wasting "that amount. In any case, Ministers have admitted that there has been waste. But Mr. M'Kexzie now says that this is "an exploded notion." Will he tell us when it was exploded, and who exploded it? For if the. money is not wasted, it cannot be saved without serious injury to the country. Does Mr. M'Kenzie realise that he has in effect said .that retrenchment, is a ruinous economy ?_ He also denies that'the Government is making railways that should not be mdde, and .ho actually declared , that the Midland Railway "when finished will bo one of the best paying lines in the country," becauso "thorc is a population of 30,000 at one end aud 100,000 at -the other, and the latter require coal, which .the line will supply 4s. per ton cheaper than by sea freight." Really,-even when they are angry, Ministers should not talk such stuff. In order to make coal-car-riago payable on the line the Department will have to fix a rate which will-result in hardly any coal being carried at all. , And , in any case Canterbury will not use enough rail-borne coal to enable' the Department to pay for much more than axle-grease. The main. Southern lines and branches, i running for many years through long-settled fat agricultural lands, do not pay 3 per cent. . How can a long : mountain line that runs through utter desolation, and relics on the coal that a few people may want and the stores that a few other people want, ever pay 1 When. Mr. M'Kenzie can say that this preposterous line will be one of the best money-earners in the system, it. is without surprise that we find him isaying, with reference to' the great public debt, that we are not "loading posterity," but providing it with "tho finest estate in tho British Empire." No doubt we may hand on a fine property to our descendants, but. our descendants may be excused if they. wish that their fathers had handed down a modest debt-free,es-tate rather than a glorious heritage hopelessly mortgaged.