AN UNAPPRECIATED JUST.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 March 1921, Page 1

AN UNAPPRECIATED JUST.

(Lyttelton Times). Mr Massey’s airy persiflage (An the subject of the Government’s change of mind regarding compulsory subscriptions to the Soldiers’ Settlement Loan, while jt succeeded in raising a laugh in Parliament has not had much success as a humorous effort elsewhere. When Mr Vigor Brown said that he wished he had known before lie subscribed to Hie loan that the Government did not intend to enforce- the compulsory provision, Mr Massey retorted that it was a very good thing Mr Brown did not know. Members were amused, but the subscribers to the loan may be excused if they fail to find anything excruciatingly funny in the circumstances. Even in Reform circles the jest lacks appreciation. The “Otago Doily Times” says:—-

“There are a large number of persons in the Dominion who will find it somewhat difficult to appreciate the humour of the situation as presented

' by Mr Massey, and who will be struck 'with a sense of the injustice resultant i from the suspension of the operations | of the Government in connection with the loan. The effect was simply this: Many companies, firms, and individuals, believing that the Government was earnest in its expression of determination to enforce compulsory subscriptions to the loan, made sacrifices in order to fulfil what they supposed to bo their I obligations. When we say they made sacrifices, wo mean that their sacrifices j were literal and tangible. They raised the money to enable them to subseril>e their quota to the loan and immediately afterwards, in order to supply themselves with funds to enable them to pay their income tax, sold their stock in Lie market—at a loss. Those* others, however, who refused to believe that --■c Government would proceed to the extreme of compulsion, have, as Mr .Massey admits, escaped the need of subscription to the loan and have consequently escaped the loss they would have suffered if they had had to realise upon their scrip. In the circumstances, whatever the Minister of Finance may say to the contrary, a relative hardship has been inflicted on those who subscribed to the loan in the belief that the threat of compulsion was seriously employed.” To this we would add that Mr Massey lias no shadow of a 'right to play fast and loose with the law of his own making. lie has no right to inflict a financial loss on those who obey the law and to gj-ant a free pardon and general indemnity to those who have flouted it. The l’rinie Minister Inis given an assurance that there will he “no more forced loans.” Setting aside the fact that Mr Massey cannot hind future administrations, it lias to be remarked that so far as direct compulsion, apart from .threats, is concerned, he has yet to raise his first LIO,OOO out of all the “forced” loans which have been floated in. this Dominion. The amount raised to date at 3 per cent, the rate allowed on forced subscriptions is very small, under £3OOO. In respect to earlier loans the threat of compulsion was sufficient. In regard to the Soldiers’ Settlement Loan the taxpayers, or some" of them, have called the Government’s bluff, and have discovered that the gun wasn’t loaded. - After such a fiasco it irather unnecessary to say that there will lie “no iikil'c forced loans.” Foi

our part we are not sorry that the Soldiers’ Settlement Loan was undersubscribed, since we have no \. isli that the Government should add to the country’s burdens by a continuance ol the bad old policy of buying land for soldiers at prices which inifst inevitably result in loss lo the State. But a- s Minister of Finance Mr .Massey is fared with some rather unpleasant alternatives. Before lie can talk about going on the London market for a loan of five millions at current rates of in forest-—anything up Lo dt or 7 per cent—he must surely show some better reasons than those lie lias given for refusing to carry out his own law under which lie can raise one an,! a hall millions in this country at three per cent. And if lie refuses to carry out his own law, Imw is lie to give a squar > deal to those who believed that the Jaw ol compulsion so prominently advertised in the prospectus of llie last loan was a real law and not a bogus one! J Manifestly the only way .lie can keep faith with the subscribers under compulsion is to recoup them toi any financial loss they have suffered by obeying the law, which would add very considerably to the cost of flotation of the loan. Our point, of course, is that the disagreeable consequences of the Government’s vacillating anil inequitable policy in respect to compulsory subscript ions cannot he dismissed with a j-st. If the matter is allowed lo stand where -Mr Massey has left it we shall be justified in asking how much of . the Statute Book as it stands to-day is to he regarded as a joke, and how much as serious legislation, which the Govoi nmcnl intends to enforce.