GUSH AND PRACTICALITY

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 195, 3 September 1937, Page 4

GUSH AND PRACTICALITY

Our Prime Minister is, truth to say, very much given to talking at large without deigning to give any tangible reasons for the faith that is in him. Somewhat in the vein of the divinely inspired prophets of the Old Testament, he puts forth his statements and utters his predictions with all the air of assured certainty and then in effect says, "that is all that you people of the common herd need to know. Leave everything to me, Michael Joseph Savage, and I will see you all through. I am the supreme intelligence and the all-seeing providence, so there is no need for any of you to trouble about thinking for yourselves." "Hitching his wagon to a star," as he himself has said, he finds himself soaring gaily through space with not even the "sky as a limit. During his pre-sessional progress through the South Island he has been regaling enthusiastic audiences of his more irresponsible followers with visions of unlimited money resources, an inexhaustible fountain awaiting only a tap of his prophet's rod such as that with which Moses of old caused the waters to gush forth from the rock for the thirsty Children of Israel. At Christchurch he is reported as saying: The day has gone by wben we need to wait for any work tbat is necessary. Already tbe Government is using, tbe public credit for housing purpeses and it intends to use it in future for the ereetion of public buildings and tbe ereation of other assets for tbe State. We can do it under the autbority tbat bas been given to us by tbe people and we shall not do any less than what we proinised to do." And then he swings off lightly, in true acrobatic style, to express prcfound regret that devotion to his public duties prevents him from waiting to see the second Rugby test match played at Lancaster Park. The elusive Proteus of ancient days had certainly nothing on M. J. Savage in the way > of the rapidity with which he could change his form. "All things to all men" is evidently his guiding motto. In his capacious necromancer's tag he has something to suit everybody. At Dunedin he was quite fcquaily expansive "For years," he saidj "we seein to have been euifering from some bug that has made us bclieve there is no money (for house building and other public purposes). Tbe money-, he went on, "is there to be bad for tbe asking and in future nothing is going to sufl'ei; for lack of money or be held up because people tbink there is not enough. There is no need j to wait ior money. There is nothing to worry about.'' For the moment there is no need to look further for pins wherewith to prick the bladder of the Prime Minister' s so airily exuberant talk than to what his own Minister of Finance, who has at least some sense of responsiiblity, has had to say on much the same subject. In the course of his broadcast statement regarding the guaranteed prices of dairy produce Mr. Nash said that any expansion of credit can be effected "with safety" only if all issues of money are backed by the increased production of goods or services. "All tbe issues of money 'in tlie world," said Mr. Nasb, will be of no use unless tbey lead to the production of' more commodities and tbe provislon of more services." Mr. Nash might easily have gone a little further by saying that even increased production is of no great avail unless prohtable markets can be found for the commodities, and we all know the difficulty he himself has experienced in his search for such outlets. • After ten arduous months spent in seeking for them he has had to return with the rather humiliating confession that he lias been able to discover none beyond those that were already well known to us. It is, of course, well understood that Mr. Savage is being pretty hardly driven by his more immediate adherents — the "hard core" as they call themselves, of the Labour Party — to produce some substantial and concrete specimens of the "rainbow gold" as to which he made such lavish promises during the election campaign. It was doubtless for the heartening of such as these that he talked so much at random to his southern audiences. - What those who are anxious to see the country make steady progress tHat can be maintained, those who are responsible to provide the improved remuneration the workers enjoy in return for their labour, are concerned about is to see whether the illusory ideas of the Prime Minister or the more practical notions of . his Minister of Finance will prevail. For defini'te information on that point we shall doubtless have to await the production of Mr. Nash's second Budget.