The Hokitika Guardian SATURDAY, OCT. 15th. 1921. THE WEEK.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 October 1921, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian SATURDAY, OCT. 15th. 1921. THE WEEK.

Mu Massey’s fanner Iriends have been speaking their mind during the week to the Prime Minister. Mr Massey retorted as best! he could, and tried hir best to boom the situation. lie rated tins critics for their gloomy utterances, hut he- should not lorgt't that his locinn while abroad, Sir E. 1). Bell, to'd all, the world not so long ago tl.at the “Treasury was empty,” anti embellished the statement with very grave remarks as to the critical state of the finances. We know, tear, that- no sooner'had Mr Massey left Now Zealand, after declaring that “the finances ere perfectly 'satisfactory.” his colleagues complained of the shortage ol money,

,-ut .iff votes to the loeal bedew, and began to bohl up public works generally. The farmers are speaking from (fersonal experiences. Their incomes in many instances have hen seriously < urtailed, hut their expenditure is keepuig up. Labne and) materinl for farm work has gone up, and -in addition they have to pay high taxes. Money Ims to he found to carry on the administration of the country, and it is right of course that tlie land should hear a full share of taxation. Where the farmers are to blame was in their neglect to practice thrift in the good days of the commandeer, when they were getting high and stable prices. Mr Massey did not neglect to remind them of their remissness. But the farmers were not different to any other class. Money wa.-. (lowing in freely, and it was being spent freely. Easy come, easy go. and all the time costs were rising. The Government went the pace as well as the individual, and although everybody was giving advice no one took he 'd. I von the Government, failed to practice what it preached, and the stringency in the public accounts which Sir r'. 1). Bell put into four words, “the Treasury was empty” was due entirely to the departmental neglect- to prepare for what- was inevitable.

Mn Masskv promises to redeem the situation. He lias told the farmers lie has a pleasant surprise for them within the next three months. It will be timed probably as a sort of Christmas box. To satisfy the heart's desire of the farmer, the best Mr Massey can do for them is a reduction in taxation. They have given him a bint that they e.xpeet nothing less, and no doubt the Prime Minister will try to accommodate his best friends. At all events Mr Massey and the farmers should well understand one another now. When they met him at Wellington this week, they informed the Minister that they were all his friends. This inter-alliance must have taken some of the sting out of their remarks but clearly Mr Masse.v was annoyed at what the Jeremiahs of the dcpiltntinn had to say about the general outlook. 'Pile following day lie entered another nest, of disgruntled farmers where lie again lectured the whiners and was able to give a little substance to bis words of courage bv mentioning a twentyfive per cent rise ill wool. I.et us hope the rise presages a steady permanent increase in wool values.. It. would be a happy solution of both the Mr Massey's and the farmers’ financial troubles. However, the farmers tire putting in their spoke betimes. Tt is as though they are giving him formal notice to redress their wrongs, or in the day of reckoning to roll round in a year or so’s time, they will correct the neglect, by other means. Certainly, Mr Massey lias a large enough following to do as lie liketli in Parliament, but .Mr Massey is showing a little praiseworthy indefiendenoo of late, and lie may not. go asi far as his political Iriends wish, lie that as ,it. may. there are many avenues along which he can work whereby he pan do a good deal to ease taxation all round —not. alone for the farmers- and that, is by more frugal administration gene rally.

Tin-: impression appears to he growing that, the current session of Parliament will see an important move in the direction of economy. Cabinet, the I.yttclton Times understands has been considering the report of the commission or committee which during the recess made some examination of the conditions in the public, service with the idea of showing where expenditure may be reduced. Unfortunately the committee of investigation was compriwJ w V,olly elvii qrvapta vV pv-oivil fiery-

ants, with the consequence that they wjerc commissioned ,to inquire into their own misdeeds, or, at the beßt, their own administration. In these circumstances it was not in human nature to suppose that their discoveries of waste and inefficiency would be numerous, or their recommendations in the way of retrenchment very drastic. Still the public service lins so expanded during recent years numerically and in cost that even a perfunctory enquiry and one handicapped by prejudice against the facts of tbo case could hardly fail to fall upon instances of over-staffing and consequent unnecessary expenditure ot public monew From information gathered by our Wellington correspondent it seems thnt the Commission lias mode n report which has impressed the Cabinet and as iv result the (iovoriinient is expected to inform Parliament- thnt tlie public expenditure must he reduced. This decision was certainly lint made before it was duo. Mr Massey has said that the country’ expenditure will have to be reduced in correspondence with its income and that the Dominion must live within its means. Me has nlro said that- taxation must- be reduced. This means not only that Now Zealand must live within its income, but that the income is a diminishing quantity, involving, of course a considerable measure of both economy and iVtrenchiwent. Tf these protestations are genuine the session will prove an exceedingly useful *one. Pile Prime Minister, wo think, will find members of Parliament* quick to support him in proposals to cut down the alarming expenditures of /the various departments. The promise to reduce taxation seems too good to he true, but really there is so much taxation that Parliament will find plenty of material to work upon.

New Zkai.aSh is hot- alone in its fihancial troubles. With a Budget that will not balance. M. Briand the French Premier, finds himself in difficulties, increased post ami telegraph rates have resulted in a decrease instead of an increase of revenue I rum that source the tax on business turnovers has fallen far below what was expected, the Customs arc yielding less, and ill other directions serious shrinkage have been iccordcd. A message this week stated that the deficit amounted to £1(10,011(1,003. The most embarrassing feature of the French Budget is the expenditure on the rehabilitation of the Liberated Regions to be recovered later from Germany, and French solvency in the end depends entirely oil Germain- carrying out her obligations under tlie rcpaialioiis scheme. Of tile total French revenue of 21.C00 million francs, 13000 millions goes in the discharge of the national debt, and the general national expenditure absorbs the remaining I I,OCO million-, ns. .ig.iiost the 0100 millions which sulliicd in pre-war In Vl.. u ..I the 0.-clinv ill tievalue ol the franc the French would would not appear to he extravagantly governed to-day. To the outside world the chief significance of a French political criss lies in the circumstance that if M. Briand falls his place will |.roll lily he taken by someone w ho is committed to a more aggressive policy and may decide to play a lone hand in dealing with Germany. Many Frenchmen desire that their country shall step in practically as receiver for Germany and the devlopuiellt of a financial crisis in France may push opinion still more strongly oil to a path which would be full of peril for Europe

A good deal lias been heard at ono time and another aobut the trade agreements which have been concluded with Russia h.v dreat liritaia, Italy, one or two of the Scandinavian countries, and (iermany Except perhaps where the last-mentioned country is concerned, these agreements have led. however, to little practical icsult This was admitted not lone a«n by .M. Kras-in, who was Soviet trade envoy to Itritain. in a statement which appeared in the ‘'Krasnaja (lazeta." Nothing of special importance, he said, had happened since the signing of the trade trim ties with Kurland and (iermany. The Kuglish treaty. and others with Norway, Denmark, and Italy, had led to nothing (English fiiins offered only short credit, whereas the Soviet would require a credit of at least five years for small purchases and up to fifteen or twenty years for larger transactions. In regard to concessions also - that is to say, agreements muter which forest, mining, and other areas would Ik l developed and worked under specified conditions hy

forcign capitalists AI. Krassin stated that in spite of protracted negotiations, not a single contract had been completed. He expresosd an opinion, however, that before the end of this year concessions would he arranged in res|>ecfc to forests and paper factories, and addel that discussions were in progress with Britain and ISelgium in regard to concessions in the naphtha regions. Since August, the Soviet has begun the importation of COO Herman and 100 Swedish locomotives, and hopes to receive lot) locomotives monthly. If this hope is realised tile position may change gradually for the better, since shortage of rolling stock and general disorganisation of railway transport hulk large amongst the tremendous obstacles that are raised to famine relief and economic reconstruction in sia.

Tun financial quidnuncs do not seem to agree as to either the merits or demerits of the Queensland loan. As an exchange put it. .Mr Theodore, the Premier of Quciislaud. seems to have sprung a hig surprise on the financial world hy going to Wall Street for the money which the Queensland (iovernment, in common with most other Australasian (iovernments, needs so urgently. hut the surprise, so far as London is concerned, is tempered l>v a feeling that the unexpected is. after all, rather obvious, ft is suggested that the London financiers would not lend Queensland money save on prohil it ive terms, not so much because they did not like the security Queensland lias to offer hut in order to tench the Par-

liament of Queensland that it must deni fairly with a certain land Company in the State, whose capital is largely English capital Evidently ramdon wished Mr Theodore and his State to pay more for the lesson than Mr Theodore was prepared to sanction. That the London terms, if any were offered at all, must have been pretty stiff, is proved by the fact that thp New York flotation Is at seven pot pan}. The *.ern»i t'vepty years is loptfq.

than that of most other recent colonial j loans, and at such a high rati- of interest a. long term is an additional advantage to the lender. Wall Street has, therefore, made Air '1 heodore pa\ dearly for the accommodation it has given' him, and the avidity with which the bonds were taken up gives a measure of the profitable nature of the transaction in American eyes. In view of the terms, therefore, the suggestion from London that this is all part of a deep-laid American plot to undermine the British Empire with American capital, seems rather gratuitous. There can be no doubt, however ,I'uil if tin' Dominions, en masse, were to desert- l,dm,bard stret for Wall Stret, a gri-t many undesirable and perplexing enmplic'itiotis might arise in future years. Fortunately, there seems no reason to fear anything of the sort. Air 1 heodore wont to New Aork on the principle of ‘‘any port iu a storm.’ lie was a stranger and they took him in. The most disquieting aspect of the whole affair is that after a century, more or less, of borrowing, an Australian State should he so desperately hard up. The appetite for loan money shows no signs of becoming satiated. In the ten year from 1901 to 1911, the I Australian States borrowed £58,000,- ; (100. In the decade iflll to 1921 they ! added 0180,090,000 to their debts, | which had nothing to do with war exi penditure, all of which was borne by I tlm Coinouwoalth So far as the last decide is concerned, at all events it . would hardly seem that the development achievel has justified the expendi- ' ture. There are people iu Australia ' who say that a firm refusal on the part .of the rest of the world to lend Australia- ally iliore money would do the country all immense amount of good, since it would inculcate more of a spirit of self-reliance. But borrowing I is easier than self-reliance, even when as in Air Theodore’s case, one has tc - beg from door to door and drive a verj j poor bargain.