WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY?

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 154, 22 February 1932, Page 4

WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY?

Although it was not unexpected, the forecast of the probable extent of the Government economies during the next few months, presents a most disquieting and disturbing picture. Eeading between the lines, the intention of the Government appears to be to reduce public works with the same sweeping gesture as was applied to the Defence Department, but with this all important difference. The drastic eurtailment of the defence vote and the wholesale disrnissais which followed that eurtailment, att'ected comparatively a small number of men, whereas the application of similar methods to the Public Works Department, which, next to the Raitway Department, is the most extensive of the Government services, must have the most widespread and serious repercussions throughout the country. The monthly statistical abstract issued by the Government shows that during the twelve months ending March 31, 1931, there was an average of .12,422 men employed on public works, during each month of the year, and while these figures necessarily fluctuate, this average has not been materially reduced during the past few months. The effect of the wholesale reductions which are apparently contemplated by the Government, upon so large a hody of Government employees,' is one which must be very widely felt, not only by the employees affected, but by the larger body of the general public which must inevitably be indirectly aifected by an alteration in the circumstanees of a section of the general community. One thing, however, appears to be certain. The Government is faced with an even more acute revenue shortage than it has anticipated in its far from sanguine forecasts, and must adopt the most rigorous methods to cut down costs. These reductions, uni'ortunately are necessary but their necessity should not be allowed to obscure another issue which becomes increasingly plain the farther the Government proceeds with its economies. No amount of "it hurts me more than it hurts you" posturing, can absolve the Reform-United admmistration from a very heavy share of the responsibility for the present top-heaviness of our Government services. It is peihaps ironically fitting that Mr. Goates, by the recerit turn in the wheel of his fortunes, should become at once Unemployment Minister and Minister of Public Works, so that as he dispenses with men from one department, they will automatically come under his fatherly care in the other. It is also fitting, if it were not so tragic, that the Leader of the Reform party should now have the task of finding work for men dismissed from works, fathered and approved by him when at the head of a Reform Government, but now by the hard test of exigent circumstanees, proved to be nothing more or less than heedless and reckless extravagance with the country' s money. On the borders of our own town we have a monument to Mr. Coates's railway policy, but as matters stand at present, the country will soon be dotted with them. No amount of zeal for the future (and even this, so far, has been lacking) can lift from political shoulders the responsibility for a great deal of the h drastic and ruthless economies which they are now compelled to effect. Had the country been reasonably and properly administered in the days of prosperity it would not now be labouring so heavily in its hour of adversity. Public works, in the past, have been allowed to flourish like the green bay-tree— at the taxpayers' expense — but that fact cannot be placed upon the shoulders of the employees of the department, who will now be called upon to suffer for it. But this Is the only cold and gritty crumb of comfort which the Government apparently intends to ofter in compensation. "The Government has hopes," writes our political correspondent, "that it will be in a position to provide reiief which will at least be sufficient to enable the unemployed to tide over the winter months." Comment upon that statement is almost superfluous, but it may be aligned with another in which, after announcing that the estimated deficit for the next financial year will reach the staggering total of £12,000,000, it is announced that "the Government has hopes that the report of the Economy Commission will go a long way to rectify a very serious situation." On its present showing, grounds for this hopef ulness would . scarcely be apparent had the Government announced its reliance upon its own ability and not upon that of the Economy Gommission. " But having faced a country of 1,500,000 population with a deficit of £12,000,000, and the prospect of further aggravating an unemployment position with which -it is already unable to deal, the Government may perhaps I plead justification for entertaining hopes in an Economy OomI mlssion where it has already fa'iled itself.