CONSERVATIVE AND SOCIALIST

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 43, 13 November 1937, Page 7

CONSERVATIVE AND SOCIALIST

OW Own Correspondent.)

How Far Has He Achieved His Purpose? T00 MUCH T0 DO

(From

WELLINGTON, This Day. Increasingly, as the Government faces sharper attacks in Parliament, it becomqg obvious that there is one man on whorn it leang. To watch him in action is to revive memories of the manner in which' Mr W. F, Massey wouid rally hig forceg against attack egpecially jn thoge dayg when he was carrying on with a "majority" composed of independentg, perambulating the House, exchanging a word here, a nod there. Mr Nash may not have Mr Masgey'g technique; hq ig not such an accomplished tactician as the veteran leader; but there is the game serene faith in himself, the same coolness under fire, the same vigour of addregs yet moderation of attitude in reply. Mr Nash has a large, disciplined party behjhd him. But numbers are not everything, for he knows that there is an inner eonflict in the Labour Party that might some day destroy the disciplined -ranks. While he works for a planned economy — his particular form of Socialism — revolutionary ideas stir some of hig followers into impatience. Orthodox finance, balanced Budgets, taxation instead of inflation: these are the thjngs that Mr Nash must convince Mr Lee are the saf gst stepping-stones to Socialism. Mr Lee has his doubts, and his recent pampbJets on monetary retorin proclainis that doubt. l't is bepomijug cbvious, that without the iporal suppoit which i§ provided bythe M'iuisUr of Finance the Government \ypuld Jack a central parpose, In acceptance of the fact that Labour is advancing from, an old state of society to a newey one, in tbo belief that depiessions will not be permitted to recur (although the Prime Minister recently declared that loeal industry had "overexpardod" in consequence of Labour prospeiity and jvas now pagsjng through a pex.od o.f * 'readjustment"), and jn the feeling that there are great things af'-ot ihe private members lean pn Mr Nash, He is fiuent, he is efficieni, he knows Blue Bcoks, and has warm syxhpathy m his dealings with men. Abyve all he is mystcrious and busy. Bchiud all that activity the ordinary meuiber feeis tbp?e must be somothing developing. The pet plan of the Finance Minister, the purchase of farm products in bulk which the election manifesto of 1935, under the flag of guarantced pripes, declared would be carriqd through within one year of Labour 's assumption of ofiice and would apply to every primary industry, is now, of course, soniewhat shopwcrn. But beliind this plan, as few realise, is the aim of Mr Nash, the fixation of land values and tho prevention of an outburst of speculation. It is this purpose which is to be read into his assumption of control of the Eeserve Bank, his price-fixa-tion policy in matters of internal marketing, his iniistence on low interest rates. The notion is one of monetary stabdity. Mr Nash knows that inflation and speculation would wreck any economic plannmg, Hesitates to Take the Plunge, klr Na«h is cOnvinced that a fixed relurn for all farmers will make for steady i'arm finance, will end the old troubles iesnlting from the capitalisatlon of market values, which even now is gi'ing on in wcol countryj but he ig con&ervative-TGiiiQcd and he hesitates to take the plunge. He is ccnsmvaiive. It is both his strength and his weakness. The insistance on balanced Budgets, on a honsing seheme which will pay the expen* seg bf admiuistration, on the imposition of higher taxes and the maintaining of existing rates in a period which his party claims is-one of prosperity in Bnowdenish in its orthodoxy. "If we are to have Socialism, then there is no doubt that the Nash brand is the kind to have" said one prominent banker of him, and there is no doubt that this sort of qualified approval from the temples of finance would condemn Mr Nash's course for the Lef't Wing of his party, Fortunately for him the Left Wing knows little of finance, and its most articulate member, Mr Lee, has revealed something of its vague and baflling concepts ot monetary poliey in his recent pamphlet. To-day Mr Nash is in authority as the Man Who Knows and who is known by the Prime Minister to know. He is likely to remain there because his party qannot do without him. Eudget-Speech Evasions.

But how far ds Mr Nash himself satisfiod with the position? In his wind-lpg-up of the debate on the Budget, lia dl&played moderation but he also was guijty of ev&sions which, for him, suggt.st a consciuusness of failing purpose. For instance he spoke in rebuttal of the charge that. the Government had achieved little in the easing of the mortgage burden and quoted figures to show liow much mortgage indebtedness had beeu written down by tlie commissions appointed under the Mortgagors and Lessees Eehabilitation Act. Tlie amount so written oif, he said, had been £147,000. Now the mortgage indebtedness of the country in 1936, according to the oflicial Year Book, was £240,000,000 which means that Mr Nash's commissions have succeeded in wiping out three-fiftieths of one per cent. of this sum. As it was recently stated that tlie commissions liad com-p-Jeted one-tkird of their work, it is obvious that nothing speetacular is likely to conie from tkem, Again, in the course of the debate it was pointed out that the Government j which prwached the doctrine of cheap

raonoy vances Department to lond at 4 l-§th per cont. which, when the 2- per cent. contributiog. to their reserve fund was mcluded in the calculation, worked out at a notably higher sum. In discussing this, Mr Nash referred to the State Advances rate as 4| per cent. Now the State Advances rate i§ not ii per cent; it is 4| per cent. to the borrower, and> what is more, Mr Nash has had his attention drawn to this matter and revealed some consternation at tflat timo, So that if he d?d not equivoeate on this occasion he did suffer from a lapse of memory. ' A Meagre Result. Still, the striking thing here is the meagreness of the results — a mortgage reduction of £147,000, a quibble abput interest at the rate of one-quarter per cent, It flts in stivipgly witli a Public Works policy qpstiug £17,300,000. In oue respect, however, if Mr Nash is the brain of the party, he is caiising concern. In common with the ultrathorough, the man without organising genius, he is doing too much. His feat9 of work are now famous; the labouys of the Ministry have gradually invaded his week-end, his own departmental oflicers are kept waiting for days before thev can see him, the floods of work passing across his desk mean tfaat somethipg must inevjtably suft'er deiay. It would be a welcome inove if he wqre to drop some of his lesser portfolios and xestrict himself to the wprk of finance, which is enough for one of trade and industry as well, and both man. At present he is handling matters of trade aud industry as well, and both are developing awkward angles, trade because of the need to obtain some sort of new agreement with Britain to earry out the Government 's election pledges, industry because of the internal problems which are arising. The coneentration of these affairs in oue man's hands is well enough as loug as that man ig able to deal with them; where tho man is engrossed in Other equally urgent tasks it becomes a weakness. in short, Mr Savage'g New Deal is now beginnipg to show a failiug which was earlier not suspected, a weakness in admiuistration.