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Hokitika Guardian, 22 April 1921, Page 3

QUITE ANOTHER STORY

(Lyttelton Times.) The Prime Minister’s valedictory optimism in regard to the financial condition of the Dominion, which he declared to be ‘‘as sound as thing could be” and buttressed by an assurance of a surplus larger than anybody had dreamed of, evidently is not shared ! by Ill's colleagues who remain to face the music. The last ripple in the wake of Mr Massey’s Homeward-bound steamer, had not, splashed against the wharf i when the Minister of Public Works. ■ | foil into a panic and commenced a i wholesale countermanding of eommit- | ments for public works. And now. j within the short space of a day or two i we have the acting-Minister of Finance | administrative heir to Air Massey’s nms- ; | nifieent .surplus and superbly-wnuuieod finances, telling a Wellington deputa- '! tion a doleful story. Like Mother Hub- ! bard he seems to have found the Treai qury cupboard bare, for he twice refined !to the “little money” in hand, said his ! difficulties were “as serious as any Government ever had to face,” and > poke . ominously concerning “the grave possi- ! bjlity of a reduction in revenue.” j Mr Massey told us that his gorgeous I surplus would keep the country going i till the end of the year, but Sir Francis | Bell speaks of the Public Works De--1 pnrtment “living from hand to mouth | in the first month of the year, and | says that the surplus will he required '! “for paying the interest on our enorimous public debt, keeping the Civil ' Service employed, and carrying on the ' i business of the country,” and adds an I indication that the business of the coun- ; try will not include any save the most i urgent and imperative of public works. Instead of building railway stations the ' : Government intends to concentrate on building houses. AVe had gathered that this branch of Governmental activity, j which had never been very assidtious■ly pursued, was to be left to private en- : t'erprise, but apparently we were mis- : taken. However, it is clear that de- ; spite the splendid fruits of nine years ;of “prudent economical and business- ' like administration” so eloquently de- > ■ picted by the Prime Minister there is > j grave need for economy and the ad- ’ j ministration as represented by the Aet- ; ing-Priine Minister considers that the 1 I people of New Zealand will have to face i | hardship. And this new-found neces- ' ! sity for economy is to he made the cx- " I c-use not for the pruning of a Civil I vice which has grown year by year m personnel and costliness out of all pio- , ! portion to the volume of services peri 1 formed nor for the abolition of food - i subsidies to farmers but for the curtailment of expenditure on Die legitimate ■ developmnt of the country. i ’ \ contemporary in an apology for the - ‘ Public Works Department says that the , intention is not to discontinue public , works, but to proceed only with such as ; ' arc necessary. Explaining this state- : ment for the benefit of such benighted souls as might imagine that all public I works are necessary, our contemporary I hints that many of the grants are m r> the nature of political bribes. The wickr j ed Liberals initiated the system of disI I trict doles so of course they and not - the good Reformers are responsible for , the retention of this iniquitous Systran - through nine long years of Reform nd- - 1 ministration. Really we think the Lih- - era I scapegoat lias had such a good flogr ! ging ever since Mr Massey came into office that it is entitled to a respite. 1, !It probably will not get it, because

our prophetic soul assures us that the j Reform newspapers will shortly he praising Mr Massey for the splendid condition of the national finances and blam- ! ing Sir Joseph Ward for the great scarcity of money in the Treasury. The process will lack something of consistency and sweet reasonableness, but after the recent conflicting statements ot Messrs Massey and Coates and Sir | Francis Bell we have learned not to look for consistency from Reform.