The Dominion FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1928. THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS CRITICS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 131, 2 March 1928, Page 8

The Dominion FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1928. THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS CRITICS

To describe the speech delivered by the Minister of Finance at Dunedin last evening as an able and informing deliverance may seem to render but bare justice to the most impressive and convincing reply to critics of the Government’s financial policy we have had for "some time. Damaging as it was to much unintelligent and irresponsible criticism that has been directed at the Government during a difficult and trying period, its greater value to the public lies in the able and lucidly-expressed exposition it presented of the country’s financial and economic position. Mr. Downie Stewart was perfectly frank about the difficulties of the situation in which both Government and public find themselves. These difficulties are in the main the inevitable result of world conditions, following on a war which, though ended nearly a decade ago, left certain accounts to be settled. There was first the direct account of paying our share of the cost. There were, and still are, the various accounts due to the disorganisation of the country during the war years. Not only had this disorganisation to be straightened out, but the leeway resulting from the interruption of our activities had to be made up. People are apt to overlook the fact that we not only have to carry on with our current obligations, but we have to carry the “dead horse” of our share of the War Debt, and the economic repercussions of that momentous catastrophe.

In spite of our difficulties, we are much better off in respect to taxation than most of our fellow-sufferers in the war who have attempted to grapple with after-war problems on sound lines. The average reasonable man is quite prepared to accept his burdens when the reason and necessity for them is clearly explained to him. But these explanations should be made more frequently, for the public memory is short. The Finance Minister’s exposition of the various problems which are causing reflection and a little perturbation to the man-in-the-street are, therefore, the more welcome in that while they constitute from one point of view an effective reply to critics of the Government’s policy, they present at the same time a reasoned explanation of the why and wherefore of that policy, Public appreciation of the difficulties and triumphs of Government cannot be taken for granted. They must be explained, if they are to command sympathetic attention and conviction. No one, reading the admirable exposition which the Finance Minister has presented, can fail to see that there is a reason, and in most instances a very convincing reason, for each of the more important acts of financial statesmanship for which the Government has been responsible. What is really wanted at the present time is a stronger sense of confidence in the capacity of the country to rehabilitate itself. To those who may be disposed to criticise the Government for the 'reactions of circumstances entirely beyond its control, the Minister says, with justification: “It is surely of some significance that almost every New Zealander who goes abroad returns to declare that this country is the best-governed in the world—that its credit stands high in the financial world, and that on the whole he would rather live here than anywhere else?-'