The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, APRIL, 18. 1928. A CRITICAL CRITIC.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 April 1928, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, APRIL , 18. 1928. A CRITICAL CRITIC.

! The March number of the “Round | Table” deals faithfully with Mr \ Coates. The achievements of the | 1927 session, it says, were in inverse | ratio to its length. The general rel suit was to create a widespread feeling of dissatisfaction with the Government among many of those who previously supported it, and to damage its credit considerably throughout the country. “Mr Coates has this session been unable to develop the driving power required to complete the tasks to which he had rot his hand. The power seems indeed, to have gone out of the Ministry. Probably at no time in our history have circumstances afforded a more convincing illustration of Morley’s dictum that in democratic, condi- ' tions policy is swayed by interests rather than principles Our political life; is to-day an open battle of seetion-

gjj al interests clamouring for economic favours. The manufacturer strives to ■: retain and increase the protective du- | ties under which lie can prosper by excluding competing imports, the farm--1 er demands transport subsidies ano | State-aided schemes of rural credit, jjj the worker demands the graduated ::: taxation of those who are hotter off so Ej as to provide social services for the | masses, either free or under cost. . . It is considered by a growing number I who view with disgust the shameless j battle of sectional interests, that if ji the Government could find courage to I take a stand against them, and appeal | to the wider constituency of the cotinI try for support on a national as disj tinet from a sectional policy, it might j win hack much of its vanished prestige, especially if the seasons between j now and the next general election at j the end of 1928 bring nnv considerable i ■ degree of economic prosperity. Since the general election, as the controversy over the customs tariff and the Arbitration Court has shown the cleavage between the manufacturers ( < and their adherents on the one side n and faimera on the other, has grown ' wider, and is rapidly approaching a •' point at which it will no longer he 1 possible to find a bridge, and the two I elements will be unable to exist to- 11 get her in the same Ministry and political party. Busines men and manu- h laeturers, generally speaking, support v the Arbitration Court and are in favor r \ of a protective tariff, country interests s on tiie other hand, have moved rapidly I into a position of marked antagonism J to both these manifestations of a pro- fj toot ion ist policy, and interests of such tl a divergent kind can hardly remain h for long within the same political fold. C i

This situation in large measure explains the lack of energy and resolution for which the Government has been so freely criticised.” The “Round Table” considers that the tariff provides a fair compromise. It continues the discussion begun in the last number of the Industrial Arbitration Amending Bill, which was practically I with'drawri. 1$ sayis the way ip yhieh I

both organised capital and organised labour .rallied to defend an Act which they have in turn execrated in the past was highly significant. On the .subject of public finance the “Bound Table” commends the eflorts to obtain more control over the public debt of local authorities, and regards the position as. on the whole, -sound, since* much of public- debt is oil account of productive undertakings But it stresses the consideration that the war debt cannot be excluded purely -localise it was necessary, sinee its burden is the greater precisely because ol its unproductive character. It considers thatthe hydro-electric schemes are overambitious, and criticises the power oT the boards to levy a rate which will cover deficits in working since that may easily result in a price containing :m element ol disguised taxation, and that, although the State accounts show an ostensible profit, there is in fact a loss in the form of rales or of an unduly costly supply at other •stages.