The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1929. A PARTY OF PROMISE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 697, 24 June 1929, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1929. A PARTY OF PROMISE

THEBE does not appear to be any community thrill of anticipation in and about the prospect of Parliament assembling this week for its first working session. All is quiet on the political front. It is impossible to say definitely whether this lack of public excitement is due to indifference or merely to a chronic belief that nothing great or extraordinarily valuable may be expected nowadays from politicians whose mediocrity all the world over has become a byword and a bore. Almost every country has had reason in recent years for discussing the decline of parliaments, and the manner in which some countries have deplored political degeneracy suggests that our Parliament is, comparatively, not so hopelessly bad after all. Perhaps the Dominion’s Legislature, under the experienced leadership of Sir Joseph Ward, this year will redeem the past and make polities a living force in the economic progress of the country. There is great scope for useful Parliamentary service and notable legislative achievement. So far, the United Government has lived largely on talk and those promises which spring from the effervescing optimism of politicians like the gas-bubbles in fresh soda-water. But in reality the boastful Government, during its first six months of office, has done little to justify the luck of the party in obtaining control of the national purse. Its best work has been in demonstrating very clearly how much administrative and legislative work requires to he done. The Government has shown that the State spends more money than it receives and must depend on profligate borrowing and exceptionally heavy taxation, which cripples national enterprise and does more than anything else to create unemployment. It also lias demonstrated that the railways run deeper than ever into a financial morass—the depth is now almost equal to £1.000.000 a year—and that the Government’s policy in respect of railway construction is singularly contradictory, but definitely dubious as to future profit. These are merely a few of the many difficulties which the new Government has revealed, and if the politicians can do anything worth while toward modifying them, if not altogether transforming grievous loss into appreciable gain, the professional legislators not only will earn their wages, hut will justify their claim for higher honoraria. Since everybody now knows that political promises are always a far pitch beyond the best possible performance, it may be unfair to recall in detail everything the United Party, or rather its exuberant leader, guaranteed during the General Election campaign, to do quickly and with the rare thoroughness of first-class statesmanship. Still, however embarrassing it may be to mention platform optimism, the Government must realise the-plain fact that it was on the warm wind of promise that the party sailed into the desired haven of administrative office. If the party fails to carry out its extravagant programme it will have to recognise the certainty of receiving curt orders to sail out again on a gale of public discontent. The country has been promised, as assured benefits from the advent of the United Government, “the freest scope for the development of individual enterprise and initiative” and the provision of measures of sound economic and humanitarian legislation that “will secure to our people the greatest possible progress, prosperity and happiness.” Such, in general terms, was the boon to be, and while it was good enough generally to convince many people that the new combination of old Liberals and raw Nationalists represented prospective realisation of hope long deferred, the promises in particular banished all doubt as to the coming of glorious times. There were to he increased money supplies for everybody, also an immediate removal of “the shackles disastrously imposed upon traders,” and, greatest joy of all, there was to be no room left for unemployment. Keen partisans for the Government doubtless could prove that there has been plenty of loan money available for workers who want homedwellings on easy terms, hut where is there evidence about leaving no room for unemployment? It has been announced that there was last week a slight decrease of unemployment in Auckland. After all that could he done had been done by the State and local bodies the number of applicants for relief work dropped from 1.07 S to 1,07.1! There will he room left for unemploymeint as long as the State maintains the present grotesque burden of taxation. The first duty of this Government of promises is to reduce taxation substantially, and thus remove the most disastrous shackle imposed on traders and industries.

A TACTICAL RESPITE

IE it does not remove all the difficulties associated with the appointment of his successor, the extension of Sir James Parr’s term as High Commissioner will at least carry the Government over the critical stages of its first working session. There is very little reason to assume that Sir James Parr wants to stay in London. His business and domestic interests, as "well as his personal choice, will be suited by an early return to the Dominion, so that the two months that have been added to his term, carrying him to the beginning of October, may possibly represent the maximum extension to which he will be agreeable. At the same time, there are gentlemen in New Zealand quite eager to have his billet. Perhaps it will be difficult to find one who will fill it quite as well as Sir James has done. Perhaps, too, it would better suit the Government, with its deficiency in numerical strength in the House, if an appointment did not have to be made just now. At any rate, while the selection is in abeyance, it has a useful plum to dangle before the faithful. Leading statesmen have once or twice made an effort to remove the impression that the High Commissionership is a purely political appointment. Possibly in a particular sense it is not. Certain definite qualifications are required, and that is why wellinformed and affable Mr. T. M. WilCord seems the best candidate for the position. But in a general sense the appointment is rarely made from outside the ranks of the party in power. Sometimes a Minister is rewarded for yeoman service by being sent to New Zealand House. Sometimes he is sent there because his presence here happens to he embarrassing. That consideration, however, will hardly worry the Prime Minister. His trouble is not any excess in numbers, hut a shortage that makes any reduction of his strength a serious matter. There are several men in the United Cabinet who would make good High Commissioners, but Mr. Wilford has the strongest claims. Unfortunately for the Government, his departure would make the Hutt seat a gift for Labour. Appointment of Mr. "Wilford will hardly be practicable, nor the appointment of any other Minister desirable, unless the Government can attract reinforcements from other parties in the House. The probability of its doing so is not remote. Diplomatic conversations have already been exchanged, and the indications are that the session will be a time of deep-laid manoeuvring. As far as the High Commissionership is concerned, the extension of Sir James Parr’s term will give the Government a chance to complete its strategy.