CRITICAL BUSINESS MEN.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 April 1923, Page 3

CRITICAL BUSINESS MEN.

ON DOMINION AFFAIRS. (By Telegraph.—Special to Guakwan.'. WELL! NOTON, April 20. Business men here are not gieatly impressed by -Mr Massey’s tentative financial statement. Allowance, has to he made, they say, lor its issue at the height of a critical election campaign, when the Prime Minister quite naturally is anxious to make out tlu best ease he can for his administration of the Treasury. P-ut, taking this into account, they can see 1,0 advantage in a surplus of a mi lion and a quarter when it is obtained >\ largely increasing customs duties am shamefully starving the railways, Ike inadequacy of the railway services in particular is exasperating the critics. They declare that high charges and scanty facilities, m addition to di awing an enormous amount of both goods and passenger traffic on to the roads, has caused endless inconvenience in communication between the 'city and the country districts, and so added much more to the cost of the individual than has been saved by the State. The railways, they complain, are being used as a taxing machine, not as an aid to development and production, with the result that surpluses and alleged profits arc being obtained at the cost of the whole community for a mere paper display.