The Dominion. TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1912. THE NEED FOR FINANCIAL REFORM.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1487, 9 July 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1912. THE NEED FOR FINANCIAL REFORM.

_ Those who take more than a passing interest in politics know that there is no harder work ahead for the Reform Government than the re-establishment of financial health. Nobody knows better than Me. Massey and his colleagues the call that will be made .upon their statesmanship in .this supremely important .field of government, unless it be-the people responsible for the condition that the new Government has to face, and these may perhaps indulge the fancy that the mess cannot be cleaned up without the new Government incurring a good deal of unpopularity. We need not discuss that fancy, which is quite an idle one: the people who demanded reform knew precisely what they were "demanding, and they will only harden in their determination to have no further dealings with the people who have bo badly mismanaged the country's finances. To anyono who wishes to' receive a new political shock wo recommend the reading of the early budgets of the Liberal party, and especially the early budgets of that Colonial Treasurer who, many years later as Prime Minister, was reduced to borrowing four, five, and six millions • a 'year on stiff terms, and who was mainly responsible for the disastrous terms upon which the recent 4J million loan had to be raised. In its early years the Liberal party was the party of sound financial principles: borrowing was. a thing to bo dispensed with as soon as possible, economoy was to be the order of the day.the debt per head was to be further reduced, taxation was to be kept down and remitted as opportunity offered. Yet by last year this party had discarded the whole of its creed: it piled' up the debt faster and faster, it multiplied puulic expenditure at an appalling rate, it enormously increased the debt per head,'it raised the taxation per head to an astonishing figure. The. public debt has more than doubled since Ballance said borrowing should cease; the taxation per lieacl has risen by 50 per cent., and to a figure almost unprecedented in the history of civilised nations; the expenditure has increased at a far faster rate than the revenue has grown, and the expenditure per head is a world's record. When Ballance took office in 1891 the debt was figure and a rate per head which Ballanoe declared "should make sane men P u aus j - L % * ollow ing 21 years 0,, & e „ wa /? I . ncl ' e ased by about £47,000,000 (it is now ovor £85,000 - 000), and the debt per head increased from just under £62 Ho about £85. .• ' For years past, while every sensiblo man has felt that this has been dangerous financing, the Government has incessantly shouted that all is well. Continuing its frantic career of waste and jobbery, converting all the resources of the nation, its credit and its State , enterprises, to the ends, we. do not say of the party, but of a small and influential section of the party's friends, it came at last to the point when nothing but-still more frantic borrowing fiould prevent the pcopl ß from realising very sharply what was happening. It h a fine moss that tho new Government has to clear up. Fortunately, with public opinion at last awakened, it can restore the nation's financial health if it tries. The first step that the Bordex Ministry in Canada found ucccssary on taking office-whs a full investigation ..of the national finances and at the.

financial side of the national administration. This is a prime necessity here now, and if Mr. Massey adopts Gladstone's method, and is as alert for every opportunity to save money as his predecessors have been for opportunities to scatter the cash,_ and if he does this in every direction, ho will save a vnst sum every, year. The interests or the nation, the wish of the friends of reform, and his own inclination coincide to send him along this course In actual practice it will be through Civil Service reform, re--form of tho system of public works expenditure, and reform of the railways administration that he can lay the foundations of a new financial stability. Parliamentary control of the finances must be restored by freeing members of Parliament from the multitudinous pressures of local interests. Borrowing, of course, cannot cease at once, and can be reduced only gradually. When he declared at Devonport a couple of years ago that ruin would follow a cessation of borrowing, Sir Joseph Ward was'rather near the truth: such really was the situation created by the party that began ' with Ballance and which always professed to follow in his steps. In seeking to restore soundness to the national finances the new Gov-ernment-will, naturally- create enemies; buj; th'e country is in a mood, and is likely to remain for a long timo in the mood, to recognise "that the' enemy of financial reform is an enemy 'of the nation. For some timo —until the Opposition, realises that its day is over—the new Government must count upon a steady campaign against all its efforts, and a ceaseless watchfulness on the part of the Opposition to turn against it every difficulty that arises from the evil conditions created by the Seddon and Ward; Administrations. The responsibility of those Administrations for the difficulties, however, will not be overlooked by the public. Next week tho Government will receive some particulars concerning the 4j million loan from the High Commissioner, and we hope that the new Minister-for Finance will take'the opportunity, when informing the House of tho position, to present the public with a first .instalment of the full and true story of the country's financial caree.r under the borrow:and-wastc regime. There is.no duty before the Government more.vital and urgent than the publication of the facts regarding the finances. There could bo no greater mistake than to suppose, as a good many people appear to have been supposing, that the country does riot want ;to'know the facts. The public wants to know the whole position, despite that small minority whoso interests would be best served by a continuance of the old Wardist method of secrecy, sophistry, and boasting. '' ' j