The Hokitika Guardian SATURDAY, SEPT, 3rd, 1921 THE WEEK.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 September 1921, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian SATURDAY, SEPT, 3rd, 1921 THE WEEK.

Tim settlement ol tin- irisli <|ue>no.i appears to la- .still in tli* - I tip "f lll ° Ctojs. Not any progress lias been made yet towards a plait liable settlement. The representatives of Southern Ireland appear to adopt the attitude wl.ieli l'nneh depicted limn ago "I the pn>verhial Irishman trailing his coat and inviting some itie to step oil the tail, and. so ereato a casus belli. \\ hih’ the reply from the Southerners is a direct alive coached in terms far from (ortoillatory. the British attitude icumins one of toleration. In lnet it is almost studied toleration. And well 't might be. for the world press meantime is ex- | ressiug itself as entirely with the British olfer. and no doubt it is well to let this expression ol opinion spread through Ireland, so that those most directly concerned will have an idea of public’opinion outside. The alternative to this toleration, would be the order lor a state of affairs in Ireland akin to civil war, and that extreme step the British Coveriiiiient is not prepared to take lightly. Indeed if the negotiations should end in a complete negative. the Government may not take the final step without a direct appeal to the nation. This would entaiT a. general election throughout, the 1 nitcil Kingdom. and on the issue of that contest the Government would have its mandate. There are now strong expiessions of opposition to the Governmentnegotiating as they are, hnti lietter exhaust all possible channels for a peaceful settlement, than resort to a state id' war, the end of which can only carry opave disaster to Ireland. The occasion calls for patient statesmanship and 1 those ipialites the Llovd George Government are exercising.

The British Government, through Mr l Invd George, lias offered Southern Tre fund tcnis which a decade ago would

have exceeded the wildest dreams of the most enthusiastic and thorouglicoing Nationalist. As the "Lyttelton Times” said this week we need not recite those terms, nor their effect, tor Mr l.loyil George's lucid summary of the position, lately published has left entiling to be said on that score. To the well-moaning common sense of Britain, who strives to a tone in this overtuie for a past marred by many mistakes and not a little injustice. Dail Fares on opposes the evasive rhetoric of Air de Aiders, who refuses the proffered olive I,ranch, hut obviously is reluctant to close the negotiations. Air de Aiders seems principally anxious to place upon Britain “the responsibility for the continuance of the conflict." The rest of the World wants to see the conflict ended, and the. Irish leader’s heroics will leave it. cold. If “government, by consent of the governed” is what Ireland wants, that substantially, is what she has been offered. Other small nations which have striven to throw off the yoke of an oppressor and which have succeeded, have almost invariable had to take, half a .loaf before they u'-(-11 red all the bread they wanted. As we see it. Ireland, wisely led, would take what is now offered considerably more than "half a loaf” as such Ftarnlnrds go- and look to time and the opportunities time will bring for the further realisation of her ideals, whatever they are. AAV are sanguine that under such a measure of home rule as is now offered, Ireland's aspirations, fp eed from the influence of major irritations, would undergo a prolonged modification in a very few years. Apparently

Dail Eireann does not propose to give the world an opportunity nt watching the experiment. The alternative w to (Oiivitice the world that the Irish question is insoluble and that sympathy with Ireland is wasted.

lI KTttKNcII.MKNT is in the air at last. In the desire to temper the wind to tffe lambs to lie shorn, the Government lias passed the unpleasant task on to the Public Service Commissioner, who was directed to wait till the wintry blasts were past, before applying the ’pruning knife to the Public Service. Public opinion seems to have made up its mind long ago on this suhejet. The logic of the Government monthly returns showing the creeping up of the departmental expenditure fixed in the public mind the need for the retrenchment, hilt the Government continued to dally with the question. Xow, on the eve of Air Alassey's return, something is being done, and economies are to be introduced. There is no doubt that the taxpayers are beginning to realise the effect of the blunders mul worse of the Government. The taxation has gone up to unbearable heights, and meanwhile there has been the spoon-lisuling going on in relation to farmers’ products, and the eoncilis-

lion of the workers at the expense of the trading classes. Also, there has been the extravagance and waste in the Public Service. This hitter is. of course directly in the care of the Government. The success or otherwise of the public administration is a simple test of the measure of management the Government of the day is responsible for. There is tlo doubt that the administration has been extravagant and it, ha” l been wasteful. AYe see evidence here from time to time, and this is an out of the way place, where it might he thought the mismanagement of national affairs would hardly lie practised. But the Gineriimrnt has been making a rod for its own hack, and in time the birch will have to ho used.

As affecting the whole position of the Dominion, the Lyttelton Times lemniked that nil Wednesday of this week the Consolidated Fund was relieved of lie blirdea of the butter bonus, and probably nobody will very strenuously ngret the passing of this very expensive ! met I iikl of eamoiitliiging the cost of living. Hut, the Consolidated Fund will have to jettison much wore than the butter bonus helore the financial future of this Dominion can he looked at with any degree of equanimity. Between March. IRIS, and March 1921, Hie annual departmental appropriations alone, leaving out ol consideration such standing charges as interest, war pensions and so forth, rose from £B,-10l /YtO to £10.83-1 .INK), an increase of £7.333.000, or something over 8, per cent, ill three years. It is a staggering increase, and it, has never been adequately explained. The stock Ministerial defence of this tremendous addition to the cost of the Departments is that, there has neen a rise in prices, and that labour materials and every service or commodity used by the Government costs more now than it did three von in ago. But n reference to the Government’s own statistics shows that there has not been a rise of anything like 87 per •out in prices in the period with which we are dealing. The six-monthly moving averages of food prices, which we understand form the basis of the Arbitration Court’s estimates .of the cost of liv ng, show a rise during the period of something under 30 per cent. AA’e have been told by the Government Statistician that tin- movement in food prices is roughtly representative of the movement of prices of all commodities, hut to lie on the safe side we will increase the figure to 40 per cent. Xow had the Government increased its expenditure

to a degree of more than commensurate with the general advance in the price of commodities, labour included, it would have spent in 1920-21 £11,831.000, or four millions less than it actually iflid spend. AVith that four millions it could have erected four thousand houses, costing £IOOO apiece, or it could have kept to the letter of its pledge to the electors by erecting one thousand houses, at a cost of one million, leaving three millions, which would have provided for public works expenditure for a year on the present scale, and would have obviated the necessity for borrowing moncv abroad.

\A k shall he told that such criticism is captious and inspired hv political bias, but whether vve are biased or not, is the criticism not justified? Here wo have an Administration which came into office to inaugurate a new era of economy and business-like administration of tile national finances, and which furthermore was committed to deal with fhe very pressing social problems of the house shortage. This Administration ratinot complain of lack of revenue. It has collected far more revenue than it ever expected to get. It, has levied a greater volume of taxation than was ever before imposed upon the people of this country, and after the richest harvest ever garnered by the tax-collector in this Dominion it has to confess that it has no money to build houses, and that it must lvorrovv millions abroad, Mild spend them there, for public works. These are not the fruits of economy. no,’ the results of business-like administration. They are the results.

so far as vve can see. of a mad competition between Government Departments, unchecked and unhampered by Alinist.u iaL control, to see which could spend the most in the shortest possible time. At the eleventh hour the Government is shortening sail in some directions. The Railway Department is going partly out of business, to save fuel and overtime, hut the savings here will he offset by revenue lost. The Public Service Commissioner has now set about the task of reducing the swollen staffs of the Departments, and vve are told of a hundred retirements. The public will approve tin’s so far as it goes, hut where the staffs of the Departments have grown by thousands, as they have during recent years the gentle use of the pruning knife ought, to he replaced by a vigorous use of a stronger instrument. The cost of the Government Departments ought to he immediately reduced by at least three million pounds per annum, by the exercise of drastic economics and retrenchment. 'I he country simply cannot much longer hear the strain of the tremendously increased cost of government.