The Hokitika Guardian MONDAY, AUGUST 28th, 1922. A COOL RECEPTION.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 August 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian MONDAY, AUGUST 28th, 1922. A COOL RECEPTION.

Tuk New Zealand newspapers gave Mr Massey's lengthy Budget statement a very cool reception. The. contents of one of the longest statements on record drew forth very liLtle that was cordial in the way of appreciation. As the “Lyttelton Times” remarked the Budget presented by the Prime Minister met what in theatrical circles is termed “a poor Press.” It is the most long-winded Budget in the history of New Zealand politics, and it is the most painstaking in its review of every phase of governmental activity, as critics on all sides in politics are prompt to give testimony. There never was such a show of putting all the goods in the shop-windows, but after the people, as • represented by the newspapers, had looked at the goods, there never was such a chorus of general disapprobation. Since the Budget is first and last an account of party political stewardship and a forecast of party political policy we need not. occupy our space with what Liberal journals say about the production. Wo have been assured by the Reform Party’s Press so often bo consistently that no Liberal jour.

nal. has any ethical standing as a critic of policies to which it is opposed that we have learned to appreciate the Reform standpoint. The Reform Party makes a law unto itself. It makes its ov.n standards and it stands or falls by them. Judged on those standards tlie Budget falls and with it the pretensions of the Reform Party to be the one true guide to sound mothods of national finance. The most faithful member of tho party’s flock of journalistic supporters, the “Dominion” could fiud no better adjective for the Budget than the word “exceptional,” and even this devoted supporter had to say:—“At an immediate view, the estimate of expenditure for tihe current year compares disappointingly with a catalogue of economies, effected and ’proposed, running to well over five millions sterling. As the estimates are framed, the expenditure of the current year will fall short of that of last year by only about half a million.” The Christchurch “Press” found the Budget “rather disappointing” and after reviewing all the economies which the Reformers claim to have effected it remarks that “it must be clear that still more drastic economies must be necessary.” The “New Zealand Herald,” found the Budget “profoundly disappointing, and devoted a column and a half of its editorial space to riddling its sophistries with shot and shell. The “Otago Daily Times’ 7 opened its reference to the Budget by stilting that it would “disappoint those who were optimistic enough to expect that it would contain an announcement of any genera] reduction of taxation.” The Dunedin journal concluded ~ its review of the position by remarking sadly that “it is a reduction of the cost of the public services that it is the pressing need of th ( . times.” We may close this brief symposium of the impressions of Reform newspapers by an excerpt from a journal which maintains an independent poise, and which generally treats Mr Massey very kindly indeed. The Wellington “Evening Post” remarks :

We are borrowing in order to savo and saving in order to borrow; lint in trying to reduce expenditure out of revenue, and at the same time t* keep the wolf from the door, we must remember that the revenue cannot escape the burden-in-perpetuity imposed by the gap between the interest the Government pays on borrowed money and the fihancial return it receives (if any) from the asset created liv the borrowed money.

All that can be said about it is that it is a mighty “poor Press” for the longest Budget in New Zealand history.