KING DICK'S LATEST SURPLUS. Also His Sweating Policy.

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 197, 9 April 1904, Page 6

KING DICK'S LATEST SURPLUS. Also His Sweating Policy.

THE Premier had a happy holiday at Masterton on Easter Monday. Arrived at the close of the financial year, he was able to announce his record surplus of ,£750,000. No wonder he felt exultant The dyspeptic people who are for ever croaking about bad times setting m have been more than usually m evidence this last year. They have been pointing week by week to the tightening of the money market at Home, and predicting all sorts of disaster from that cause. Their dismal chorus has risen into a regular diapason of woe since war broke out between Russia and Japan. This struggle, m which we are not immediately concerned, was going to shake our commerce and finances to their very foundations, and disturb our trade deeply. • * • Even the framers of that precious annual report which was laid before the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, last week, reflected this bilious hue and distempered view of things "The Russo-Japanese wax is fraught with possibilities of disastrous complications." The hardening of the local money market, if it continues, would check enterprises and industrial activity throughout the colony. Trite and well-worn phrases m frequent use, and of just about as much value as the commonplaces people indulge m about the weather when they are stuck up for a subject to talk about. • • • Turn from these dismal forebodings to the solid reality of that £750,000 surplus Dimmish it if you please to half-a-millon by allowances for make-weights of one sort and another, and the substantial fact remains that, after twelve years of unexampled prosperity, New Zea-

land shows no sign of slowing down lier rate of progress. The times and the conditions may have been exceptionally favourable, but great credit must also* be given to the Ministers who have been navigating the ship of State. None of them have spared themselves, and least of all the Premier. • • ♦ Now, that brings us face to face with the point expressed m the second head-line of this article. There is no disguising the fact that for the last eleven years King Dick has been taking too much out of himself — using up his remarkable energy and vigorous constitution at an altogether abnormal and ruinous rate. From year's end to year's end he has been sweating himself without mercy, rusihmg round the colony m the recess, receiving deputations, attending banquets, addressing public meetings, getting his meals when he could, and cutting deeply into the hours of rest so as to keep abreast of the thousand and one matters of administration which he personally controls or determines And during the five months of the year that Parliament sits the Premier undergoes a test of physical endurance that would kill an elephant • • ♦ Well, this sort of thing has begun to tell on the Premier. A year or two back he received a warning to go slow. He put the brake on for a shoit time But, his indomitable spirit is not easily restrained. His health is again feeling the tremendous strain His statement at Masterton on Monday last that there were reasons forbidding him to make a sj>eech, much as he would wish to do so, is very significant when it is Mr Seddon who makes it. In the interests of his family and m the interests of the colony for which he spends himself so freely, the Premier must conserve his energy. He takes far too much ur>on his own shoulders Sir Joseph Ward and himself are the greatest victims of sweating that this colony possesses. Let the burdens be more equally borne. If there are any dummies or weaklings m the Ministry, it is high time a change was made. Doubtless more of the routine work might also be delegated to the departmental heads. • • ♦ At any rate, it is quite obvious the Premier undertakes far more than human endurance can stand without detriment to health. King Dick is too valuable a colonial asset to be wasted. He must not be allowed to sweat himself so mercilessly. The very onerous and responsible duties appertaining to the Premiership ought to be ample for any ordinary statesman. Still, as Mr. Seddon is such a glutton for work, and such a wizard of finance, the Colonial Treasurership might continue to rest on his ample shoulders without distressing him unduly. But he is also Minister of Education, Minister of Defence, and Minister of Labour as well, and the first of these portfolios is enough to tax the energies of the smartest man in New Zealand. Yes, King Dick must really adjust the burdens and show some mercy to himself. The people expect it of him In the meantime, we hope soon to hear that, with the brake on, the Premier's health is fast regaining its usual vigorous tone.