Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star TUESDAY, JURY 27th, 1920. FINANCIAL

Hokitika Guardian, 27 July 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star TUESDAY, JURY 27th, 1920. FINANCIAL

This Financial Statement, which it is expected in the ordinary course, will be delivered to Parliament apd the country to-night, should disclose fully the Ministerial mind regarding finance. Except for vague and general references nothing at all specific has been given out regarding the financial position. ’Hie Governor’s Speech stressed the stringency to -sontyi extent, but since thou the Minister of Finance 6as bpen talking li) a more jovial strain. Also, Mr .Massey has been making many promises to deputations involving large expenditure for public works, increases of salaries, creation of new avenues of expenditure and ‘what not. It remains to be seen how those promises are going to be honoured. Many newspapers, even of the Reform colour, are writing very frankly on the financial position. The genera] financial situation is not, .necessarily, a. party matter. All will wjsh to see the country in a sound and solvent position, and for that reason the subject may be ’ approached quite candidly from any side. A coninjeycial journal, such as the ” Mercantile -Gazette,” nominally clear of party leanings, in its latest issue discusses the situation very frankly, and |n view of the fact that for the immediate present the finances of the country will be very much in the public mind, it will not be out of place to quote the article in question (if- length, which we now proceed to do : No one GiflJ’S the “ Gazette ”) need envy Mr Massey (it the present time. He has to walk on very slippery ice during the next tew months, ancl whichever way he turns there are : ootilasses which will engulf him if he ; does not observe the greatest earn. He j must remember that his return- to i power last year was not because the j people very much (jlcsircd him personal- 1

ly: the real re;usi>o >as ,tha,t they were tired and sick of his predecessors and were determined to free; themselves fWH) them at any cost. Whether Alt’ Massey wilt be able to bo loved for himself or not depends upon what he does during the nest few days. Labour individually or collectively will certainly pot look upon him as tbejr representor tive ; his support has been and must, he from tlic votes of those who have found most of the war money required, and they look to him to gee that taxation is so amended that business enterprise sslrall not be checked, and that imposts which were put on temporarily and in order to carry on the war against the i'Joche Khali not become perpetual. That Mr Massey has made so many promises the realisation of which will entail heavy expenditure is a matter of regret. Ho seems to suffer from, a constitutional disability which prevents him from saving “ Ho ” to almost every request which comes before him for money ; he occasionally safeguards him-

self by ji reference to the state of our Kxcliecpier, but be certainly does not, as a stronger man would do, say at once that there must be no increase of expenditure, but drastic retrench men t, until the finacial position of the country becomes normal. i\t present the income tax of 37 per cent, wants cutting down. That, we think, is the first essential. It was put on for war purposes when we had 100,000 men under arms or training for the field, hut now that the war is over and we are back in times of peace, the first thing Mr Massey should do—as Sir Joseph Ward said he would have done had he been Finance Minister this year—would he to reduce this to pre-war limits or as near thereto as he can. We ean assure Mr Massey that if he fails to give some relief in this matter this year lie will

alienate from himself the sympathies of that c lass who pay the tax and of all those assiciated with thorn. Mr Massey’s threat, also, to exercise, compulsion in the matter of the loan is, we think, ill-advised, as was also his belief that he could borrow moneys from ; the trading companie at 5 per cent, at which rate he knew most of those lending would receive £3 Is Gd per cent. Money is like any other commodity and must he paid for at market rates, and it is difficult to see how Mr Massey could expect to borrow at 5 per cent when there is every reason to believe that the , bank rate will bo 3 per cent above that before the year is out. He may say the , matter has been accomplished: if it | has been, we should like To know irom , what source the money has come. Wc think no Government should in peace i time have the power of a Turkish Pasha to order that any person should lend to ' the Government whether they wish to or ■ j not, and Mr Massey must remember j I that lie, as head of the late coalition, j ’ must accept the responsibility for Ivavi ing taken the power which now author- J ises him to deprive every citizen possessing money of the right to invest his own | funds when and how he pleases. No one denies that when the safety of the country is at stake it is the right and duty of the Government to appropriate any property, private or public, to provide whatever fur-ds may be necessary to win, but such a power should lapse when the emergency has passed. What is wanted more than anything is the appointment of a Board armed with power to cut clown all unnecessary expenditure-, of which at the. present time there is far too much. If the pruningknife cut away all useless expense now going on in.the Civil -Service the country would be relieved of at least one parasitic growth which is drawing the life-blood of the body politic. We are informed upon fairly good authority that the cost of keeping the military scheme going in Canterbury a-lono is £9,000 a month. Tf this is correct, we ■ wonder if any nttempt is going to he made to cut down that outgoing.