POLICYOR MUDDLE?

Hokitika Guardian, 27 April 1921, Page 4

POLICYOR MUDDLE?

(Lyttelton Times). More than three weeks have passed since the end of the financial year, hut the secret of the position disclosed by tho accounts is still closely kept by the Government. Mr Massey had the figures a- week ago, for lie was boasting ’ on Saturday of a surplus “greater than j had been ever imagined or thought of.” j He then said that the particulars would j be announced “in due time.” Well, . most reasonable people will agree with us that the time is now overdue. Ministers really owe it to themselves to take the public into their confidence. Here we have Mr Coates restricting public works because of “financial stiingency” and Sir Francis Bell saying that wo are living from hand to mouth ; and while they keep the actual state of affairs hidden from view they can hardly expect the public to be impressed by their warnings, especially since the Prime Minister so recently talked of the splendidly strong and sound finance that he had built up. Probably Sir Francis Bell’s expression might he applied in a wider sense, for whether or no the Government is living financially from hand to mouth, it appears that this uncertain condition very well describes the policy of the Government. ],, the domain of finance, indeed, the Reformers are positively helpless. Thc\ have no guilding principles and littk capacity. They simply muddle along One Minister after another declares , that food bonuses are unsound—Mi 1 Massey and Mr Nosworthy have said it }at all events —and yet the ‘ police icontinued. The Prime Minister talk of abolishing these bonuses in order tha . taxation may lie reduced, hut lie doe

not do it. The latest in regard to taxation is a promise by Mr Massey to reduce the burden at the end of the yeai unless conditions get worse in the meantime, but this as small comfort to a community whose public finances always have got steadily worse in the hands ot the Reformers. Tn any case, while the head of the Government makes pious promise to reduce taxation he has been very careful to do the very opposite. Tho unpleasant truth is that the Government has no principles and no policy in relation to finance. Its record is one of reckless extravagance, and is a re-

cord disfigured at every turn by broken pledges, panic measures, absurd pa.datives and unstatesmanlike administration generally. The following extract from the “Auckland Star” is worth quoting:— “Compulsory loans, extension ot the mortgage moratorium from time to time, the impounding of all moneys advanced t o trading concerns at call or for short periods, the inflation of the currency in an effort to holster up the price of wool, the imposition of an income tax that is gradually thiottling the life out of industry, the maintenance of food subsidies as a sop to the public, may act as soporifics on the body politic; hut what of the disease that might early have been removed by the muv I mini of a skilled surgeon? Is it not penetrating deeper, and may nol the task of the surgeon when he finally is called in in a desperate effort to save the life of the patient he almost impossible? The Government since the armistice has unquestionably not for one moment faced squarely the problem of financial reconstruction. The business community, with its attention adroitly side-tracked by minor issues, and the difficulties of its own immediate problems of supply and demand, lias not sat

down soberly and thought out the position, and whither the State is drifting. The want of a strong lead in finance is probably the greatest need of New Zealand to-day, and looking over the ranks of the Government it is difficult to see where it is to come from. A campaign is required to awaken the community to a lively sense of the grave dangers of the preseut failure fo restore normal conditions in finance and trade.’’ Not many observant citizens will find fault with this statement of the position. Unquestionably the prime need of the moment is a strong lead in finance, while we endorse most heartily our contemporary’s suggestion that a campaign is required to awaken the community to the peril of further drift. The Reform Government, as we point out in another article, lias just issued half a Year Book instead ol a whole one and asks tho people to consider this a sign of economy. At the same time the staffs of the Departments arc swollen until efficiency must surely he reduced through employees getting in one another’s way. Neither the Railways nor the Post, and Telegraph Departments are paying propositions, so that tax-revenue lias to he tapped to make up their deficiencies, while, as Mr Mnssoy himself admitted in a lucid moment, the community is staggering under its load of taxation. And there is nobody visible in the Reform Party who is likely to help the country out of tho

muddle. In fact, probably very few members of that party are interested ii the matter. Ministers are, at any rate too indifferent to publish overdue information.