NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1367, 19 February 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

Herb and there, perhaps, some friendly. reader who has begun to forget the Ward method of talking may feel inclined to remonstrate with us upon the incompetence of' 1 our reporters as shown in the "first person" passages of the Prime Minister's speech in the House on Friday last. We beg that they will believe that these passages were most accurately taken and transcribed. "Coclum lion unimam mutant qui trans mare curruni"— they change their stars, but not their hearts, who voyage from London to Wellington. So we may say of Sin Joseph Ward that he is true to type whatever happens—always complicated and confused —whether he is safe or shattered. For example: "I would bo supremely proud to have an opportunity of showing, some of the difficulties that any men who come here have got to deal with, and to look at performance as against words in tho quantity that have been talked about the conduct of this country's affairs by people who will make a 'holy mess' of it." Nobody knows what all that ought to mean. We all know what it actually does mean; that Sir Joseph Ward is bewildered—so bewildered that he went on to say, to everybody else's bewilderment, and especially the bewilderment of grammarians: "I will take an opportunity of compelling sonie people to disclose all the detail from all the pigeon-holes in connection with the finance of this country for the purpose of showing whatinnuendo and slander can suggest in the way of derogating from the position of a public man in New Zealand." The one practical comment that is required is this: that in mahinti it a little difficult for the Reform Government to straighten out the finances of the country he has also made it very easy for the Reform Government to explain why. The country knows that the Reform party has to take charge of a bad state of affairs; it was because things were going bad that the country called the Reform party into power.

The public will regard with some astonishment the laxity which is disclosed by a complaint from a correspondent, "H. 8.," on the subject of the city tramway traffic arrangements for the convenience of passengers arriving in Wellington by the express trains. He states that no cars ,werc dispatched last Thursday to meet the Napier express arriving at Thorndon Station at 6.50 p.m.; that about 30 people, including ladies and children, had to wait for ten minutes before a car came along, and that this omission had occurred not once, but on each of the previous evenings of that week. Inquiry by the Tramways Department showed, further, that our correspondent's statements were correct, and that the reason for the muddlement complained of was that the regular car dispatcher whose duty it was to detail- cars to meet the train was on holiday, and that his locum tenens had, through some misunderstanding, failed to perform this duty. There must be something radically wrong with the traffic supervision when such an omission as has been pointed out by our correspondent can happen on four consecutive occasions, and not be renorted to the management at the head office. Nor can the discipline and esprit de corps of the service generally be very high when the oversight of a locum tenens is so casually regarded by the tram-men concerned that those who must have noticed it do not appear to have troubled themselves to draw the dispatcher's attention to the matter. There are excellent reasons for believing that the discipline i* now so undermined by political influence that it is bad indeed. Before the present order of things can be restored to the normal, one of two things must happen—either the mayoral chair and the council table must be barred to politicians— a contingency beyond our hopes—or the control of the public tramways must be taken right out of the hands of the council and vested in a board.

Although' he professed to be very well pleased with things in general the Prijie Minister plainly was in .a very irritable frame of mind on Friday last when discussing the five million loan. In his irritation he made a somewhat indiscreet reference to financial matters, which, when it is pointed out to him, he will no doubt hasten to explain away. He stated that he had provided for the finances of the country up to March 31 next, and accompanied his remark with the assertion that he had taken care to keep £5.800,000 of loan authorisations free, adding later his prediction that when the Opposition came to raise a loan they Would not raise it as successfully as' he had raised his. This boast of superiority as a money-raiser is not worth much attention unless taken in conjunction with his other statements. The authority to borrow £,5,800,000 which In; states remains to be exercised includes no doubt the various annual loans for which authority is given by statute. This is a very large sum, hut under the present Administration the bnrrowinH power* of the , Government have been greatly aug-

mentetl. 'Why, however, has the Pimm Minister suddenly developed this reluctance to exercise the borrowing powers he has previously shown no disinclination to take full advantage of! Is it to score n party advantage at the country's expense, or is it because the time is not opportune! In either case, what credit can he claim for his neglect to borrow the money he obtained authority to borrow? Possibly some member will inquire from him whether the various lending Departments of the State are so well supplied with funds at the present time as to render borrowing unnecessary. Our information rather leads to the contrary view. But it is well to bear in mind that in addition to this £5,500,000 for which authority exists, loans to the amount of" nearly £8,500,000 fall due during 1912. When he says that ho has provided for the finances of the Dominion up to March 31, docs the Prime Minioter mean that he has only provided for the renewal of such portion of these loans as falls due up to that date? We can hardly think that the Government, reckless as it has been in financial matters, would be guilty of such conduct as to leave arrangements of such importance, which should have been made ere this, to be attended to at short notice by its successors in office. Still, we shall see in due course what has been done in connection with this, as well as many other matters, concerning which the public has been too long kept in ignorance by. the Continuous Ministry.