The Hokitika Guardian MONDAY, NOV. 13th, 1922. TAPERING OFF.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 November 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian MONDAY, NOV. 13th, 1922. TAPERING OFF.

Is the speech at Pukekohe with which he opened his election campaign, the Prime Minister appears to have said little that was new and nothing that was inspiring. The speech lor the most part was a r.’citnl cf what he had done for the farmers in the past and what he' intended to do for them in the future. “He would refer, first, to the efforts he had made at the end >f this session to provide additional inancia! support for the farmers. Ho md secured authority to add two milions to the funds of the State Advances Office. He would find that hont v this year as Minister of Finance, ml he would And another three mil'ions next year, if all went well. This iioney would be available for loans, minding tbe loans that might be repiircd • when the moratorium came to in end. The scheme did not stop here. He was arranging to extend he operations of the Advances Delartiuent to include advances of up to £SOO on chattel security, and he hoped to be able to extend the limit to HI000.” All this sounds curious enough coming from the lips of n politician who denounces Sir Joseph Ward's first Advances to Settlers Bill as a degrading prostitution of the States’ functions, and an instrument of bribery ami corruption. But rve have I no ilrsire to go back tq t’irt semoje l

period in the history of the Dominion just now. Nor do we grudge the farmers one shilling of the legitimate as-

sistniKo Mr Massey can give them. But I we object strongly to the devious ways , in which tbe Minister is finding nioney for bis proteges. Mr Massey has bad the free run of the till, so to speak, ever since he took over the Treasury from Sir Joseph Ward on the dissolution of the National Cabinet, and no one can say how many new ways of “raising the wind” lie has devised. It is certain however, that all the available sinking funds have disappeared and that the I Government itself has been the chief borrower from the State Advances Office. Presumably the five millions which Mr Massey is going to “find” in his capacity of Minister of Finance, are required to carry on till the big loan can lie raised in March next to ! patch up the country’s sadly disordered accounts. Yet so strong is tbe force ; of habit and the delusion of thought ; with the Prime Minister that he talks of the Dominion achieving its financial , independence just as glibly to-day as he did when lie was denouncing the [ administration of his predecessors in office across the floor of the House a dozen years ago and liefore. He ; would say emphatically, he told liis

confiding constituents at Pukekohe the other night that harrowing could not continue in future years at the present rate. 7'he country could not hear any further addition to its burden, and the Government would have to “taper off.” But Mr Massey’s method of “tapering off” seems to he to find that five millions he believes to he lying somewhere about the Treasury, and to make this seem to satisfy his needs, till the Stock Exchange, ns he has described himself, will allow him to appeal to London for another five millions. “Wo have heard of “tapering off” time and again, hut never before' of such an astounding interpretation as the Prime Minister has placed upon the term. Yet the statesmanship (?) displayed is quite in keeping with the

reckless methods thorities country. ways of Reform’s financial against which all financial anare repeatedly warning the