CANDID CRITICISM

Hokitika Guardian, 6 April 1932, Page 7

CANDID CRITICISM

LANG, WRECKER. (Sydney Telegraph, March 15). It- has been said that every country gets the government that it deserves ■The exception proves the rule ; whatever may be the 'faults of N.S.YV., it has not deserved -the hideous tragedy of the Lang Mis-Govermnent, To an outsider, who has not to suffer from the doings of Mr Lang and his followers—and pushers—the prank of this co-called Government might occasionally prove amusing. The- wretched N.IS.W. taxpayer, however, cannot -sc-e the joke, even in the Gunpowder Plot removal of £1,000,000 odc| from the banks to the Treasury vaults. He knows too well that in the long run he will have to pay, and to pay heavily, for all this funny business. He feel; that it i s bad enough that Mr Lang has made the once respected nanr of New South Wales stink in tin nostrils of the world without this buffoonery. The taxpayer * remembers, -too, what

happened to G. 5.8., and the long agon; of the wretched depositors before the;, were saved by the Commonwealth Bank. The good sense of the public will doubt-

less see to it that no harm is done by the latest monkeying with the State'; bank deposits. Still, the action wadangerous, as well as absurd. The little band of secessionists, revolutionaries, and fishers in troubled waters which controls Mr Lang and hit subservient majority in the Assembly i,by no means satisfied with tile mischie that it has done, great as that has been. Mis-government has wrecked in dustries or driven them to Victoria, and brought the State to the edge ol bankruptcy. There has been a callow disregard of common decency in the creation of jobs for a favoured few aiu in -the division of the spoils. It would take too long to eriumerat; all -the scandals, actual or potential, of the la.it few month. The Co-ordina . lion Board, the Milk Board, and the dole bread contract are a few of them, but there are many others, great and small. Others are in cold storage for the moment, but no doubt will come out, smelling very strongly indeed, if there is half a- chance. It must he realisec that some of the people who ore hold, ing up and prompting 'Mr Lang, tic “strong man," are capable of anythin; —and more.

If these people art* allowed to misgovern N.S.W., Willi Mr bang as t-lieii puppet, much longer, it will he lot late- to save the State. There will he nothing left to save. It comes to this that either the State or Mr bang must go. The people .of the State cannot stand much more.