The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING GISBORNE, OCT. 18, 1906.

Gisborne Times, 18 October 1906, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING GISBORNE, OCT. 18, 1906.

The extension of the principles of the Ad vances to Settlers Act to workers, proposed by the ineasuro introduced by the Premier on Tuesday night, is a I matter that will meet with little or no opposition. The fact that it was sug~ • gested by the Leader of the Opposition last session, and that other members of the House desire to lay claim to the ■ | authorship of the measure, is a sure s sign that the Advances to Workers Bill, in which the principle is embodied, will have a pleasant passage through the House. This is really the measure that ought to have taken the place of the Workmen's Homos Act of last year which, owing to the bungling of those in charge of the administration of it, has already proved a failure It has already been pointed out in these columns why aud hew this failure has so so r m overtaken the Act I which, rightly administered, Bhould | haye proved an immense benefit to workers in the towns who were able to get houses built for them ; but the weak point of that Act was that only a few workers in certain favored localities could get any advantage from it, and fbe yast majority of the workers

throughout tho colony hurl no oppor-» tunity of loiiHing or purchasing Gn-vornmont-built homos. That in its LI ma le tho Act ulmost a nullity, anti when to that was added the bungling of purchase of suitable land and the expensive stylo of architecture adopted, it is little wonder that tho suggestions of tho Loader of tho Opposition or whoovor ilso concoivod tho plan now npponring in tho concroto form of a 1 J iH before Parliament, woro adoptod by tho Govormnout. Tho intrinsic dilforoncu botwion tin Workmen’s Dwellings Act of last yoar and tho Advances to Workors Hill now bofore the llouso is that under tho former tho Government did all the business of purchase of land and oroctlon of tho dwellings, whoroas under the Bill tho worker selects his own land, adopts his own plan of architecture, does the work himself if ho chooses, and tho Government pays a proportion of the cost by way of easy mortgage. Tho only disadvautago is with tho extremely poor man who cannot raise the proportion of cost required of him to avail himself of tho provisions of the Bill; but, on tho other hand, tho worleers who can take advantage of tho uiuasuro have the advantage of being able to select tho sites for their cot' tage.s in tho placos most convenient to th"ir work, and will therefore not bo compelled to travol longer distances each morning and evening to reach their work and return to their homes. J.jmt in itself may often moan a heavier expenditure than working men can usually aiiord, but, above all, tho benefits of the Bill will not be confined to a fow who happen to obtain permanent work within easy distance of whoro workers’ homes happen to have been built by the Government There arc indications, however, that the Bill will not bo as beneficial as may at first bo anticipated, for the reason that tho Government can bungle the administration of that Bill when it passes into law as it did the other, and we notice that tho wasteful policy of the past Government has had its effect upon the success of this Bill already. Let us explain why. Though tho colony has enjoyed a decade of enormous prosperity, and money has been fiowing like water into the Government colters through tho Customs and other sources; though big and increasing nominal surpluses have been announced from year to yoar; and though there was no apparent or tangible reason why wo should not have lived as a colony well within our income and ceased borrowing except for the construction of arterial linos of railway, roading Crown lands, and for the advances to settlers, the Treasurer has not been as prudent as he should have been, and money was scattered lavishly to gain Government support in constituencies where it was thought au Opposition member could be ousted in favor of a Government nominee, or where the Government member already in possession of the seat was found to be iuseeuve. Where those conditions prevailed “money was no object,” and almost anything was to be had for the asking. Enormous sums of public money were thus wasted ; but in addition there were big social functions, Ministerial trips round the globe, ornamental statues which only the globe-trotting New Zealander will ever see, palatial residences and furnishings, immense additional salaries to hangers-on and friends, and a thousand other things had to be paid for of which the ordinary taxpayer has no conception, and the net result of all this was that the public debt, notwith> j standing our boasted affluence as a colony, kept creeping up at the rate of over two millions a year. The Home money market was drained till it threatened to run dry, and thon our own and sister colonics were asked to advanco the necessary cash to keep up appearances. The present Premier once made a boast of having placed a loan at something like 3 per cent, and claimed for the Government the credit of having reduced tho rate of interest to that point; but now we are going to borrow another million, and he asks authority to pay hall as much again, or 4’. p.c., for the accommodation. This does not augur well for the success of the advances to workers’ scheme, for if the Government lia3 to pay 4’. per cent for the money, the workor will have to repay that amount plus loan commissions, bank exchange, brokerage, and expenses of administration, and it means that if he can get his loan as low as five per cent, which is doubtful, and he repays the loan with iuterest at the end of twenty years he will have to pay back just double what he gets to help him on his way. Still that does not militate against the good principles of the Bill, and if the Government could only be induced to save a few thousands from unduly lavish donations to the late Premier’s widow, for instance, and many other channels of useless and unnecessary expenditure, and advance those thousands under the new measure to struggling and worthy workers at say 4 per cent, tho placing of the Bill upon the Statute Book would prove a boon to many an houest man who earns his bread by the sweat of his brow, and the country at large would benefit by the expenditure instead of having it wasted under present methods.