The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE WEDNESDAY, JULY 1919. A MINISTERIAL APOLOGIST.

Taihape Daily Times, 30 July 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

WEDNESDAY, JULY A MINISTERIAL APOLOGIST.

With which iis incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.”

Were we asked to select the mostl capable and most earnest Minister from the present hybrid Government we believe our choice would fall upon the Hon; W. D. S. MacDonald_ He is a comparatively new man at the helm. of the National ship, and he steers a. fairly safe -course, but we wouldg rather he did not excuse. any deviat-10I_1_ from the direct line to hisport of safety because he believes some other National ship is gettingfarther out of its course than the one he sails in.‘ It is a dangerous logicism to say that this ‘country ison the right track be-l causeit: is;n.ot so fariptrom the honest char-t‘lines:.as some_9,the_r ‘country is. Itis no consolation .to_the housewife and mother who has _.no coal in the house to be told she is not so badly off’. in that,connecti_oil as .a woman in Timbuetoo is_. Neither. does it -help to calm the temper. of__a stranded trav-Ll eller on: ourrailways .by, quoting.-some I Yankee’ story, even_:tl.iough~_' it. rlodgls .1 come from a professor of an ‘American! University. .. It: seems: to us that this country has its own troubles vwhich-I cal‘ neither be incrcesed or lessened,-by ‘ ill!-g:ea.l comparisons. .» We would gest that many of our difficulties andi deprivations are self-made, unneces—‘ sarily made. This country goes on working and producing to feed and‘ clothe people in other parts of thei world, accepting a low price for its products that others may have food and clothing at a price they can afford to pay for it; but what do we discover? We see fiendish packs of hounds loading our food and clothing with an interniediate profit amounting to hundreds of per cent. and then we are told that we are no. worse off in New Zealand than" the poor victinlised wretches in other: countries. No man in the Ministry is, pursuing a more loyal‘ course than the Hon_ Mr. MacDonald,» and although we regard loyalty a cardinal virtue we do not think he is called upon to share an odium he has had no part in making or creating. On several occasions he has voluntarily inade himself the apologist for others’ sins, and it is in such cases we‘ find hini introducing irrelevant’ A comparisons as a clincher to his statement. Broadly speaking, Mr. MacDonald knows that producing coun. tries have been rendered no better off jthan consuming countries by a s_vste::: 3 of robbery hitherto unprecedented, and lwhich will not be permitted to go far [into the future. Producers in New %Zealand have prices for their proidncts limited, but the ‘Vlll‘[‘.ll‘Os. who get possession of those products can practice unlimited robbery without legal or government interference. Those vultures assist governments with their plunder and are created knights, made peers of the realm, given a life position in the government, or granted some other ridiculous, contemptible, silly decoration or order, With unlimited legal assistance to exploit our products they can well at‘ford to invest in government loans in the countries where the exploitation takes place, but who is to contribute to New Zealand loans now that the limited prices of produce leave the farmer but Very little to spare over and above whatlle will certainly re--(lnire to meet increased taxation and other ‘post-War liabilities with? VVhile CV01‘)? section of the community, ex,C°Ptillg a favoured few soulless ex-it-iloiters, is virtually living from hand it‘) "With: while travel communication and gOOdS transit has broken down; ’“’hilo prices of actual necessaries of life are increasing by leaps and bounds; While production. is being strangled by theepractice of an inS3llO System of land aggregation; While the costs of the farmer are increasing and the value of land is being boosted up so that owners may be t3X<,3d Tight Off it; while profiteers are provoking more labour difficulties by immol‘allY and madly increasing the cost of living; while the amount collected as customs duties is alarmin ly

out of proportion to "the volil’mc of goods imported, and while all Government services have either entirely bmken down; 01' Only exist by a System .015 Drofiteering not surpassed by any [ordinary dishonest trader, can this "country look forward with any hope ‘'6o 3. condition of social and ,(;onlmcr--0131 Stability and industrial peace? £Mr. MacDonald may assume the thankless position of Government ¢lPologiSt, but we are mistaken if the time is not near when he will fling down the gauntlet -to wild peskincss that is thoughtlessly being practiced. While the country is drifting into black danger at both ends of its means Of life; while land troubles are loomiing very threateningly ahead, and jlabour can get no respite from the! profiteer, the robber Rack are too intensely concerned with evolving new methods and schemes for increasing their Opportunities to exploit, to! spare any time to think about how the national business is proceeding. It! is a vulgar, but nevertheless a worthyi axiom, that “every dog has his day,” and Woe betide -the dog that is having I his day now should a reverse tide set in. The hybrid crew aboard the na-“ tional ship has proved an irretrievable error; it has been a veritable go-as-you please and while some are going with extreme caution and assuming. the apologetic, others are pouring out the money from the national purse truly like water. With every market rise of commodity cost, they have increased duties and charges; they have positively boosted up railway, postal and other services to a point which impoveris-hes’ the people who have to use -them, and the money has teamed into the Treasury until some Ministers began to think farmers were 1-eally| growing sovereigns, instead of producing meat a few pence per pound for trusts to sell at shillings a pound. The per capita. cost of Government in New Zealand is not to our credit, but it would be no less illogical to make} comparisons with other Dominions,than those made aboutthe cost of living by a Yankee’ professor, some-?~.wh-crein "America. \T.h__e I-lopn. Mr.pMac"Donald 1<.1,1.‘<>,..W5. .f«h¢f¢'.ar<=T e seed mafia. national‘ 'nl'a'de'it jglirlly “plain ;th'a‘t' he is .goi_l'l"g. to enter ,la“t'ightening process, or take" the‘ -niearesf exit_ to ‘,ip,olit'i_c's,, i":at_l_ea’s:tp that is lwh‘at,_,vv,e xunderistanfd ' firornhphis various utterances, ‘While he apologises :for the Board of,"'l"rade, _he virtually admits that the Board has been lmuzzled, by stating that the muzzle! ‘is to be removed by amending legis—} Llation when Parliamentfimeerts. The! {Board is to have far greater powers} iconferred on it by logislzition, but we 1 ’are not sure that the people would not the doing themselves a great SerViCe ‘WY *culting the Board out altogther, and lcompclling the men they elect to gov|crn and administer assume the logical I'cSponsibi]itie§,fol‘..._Wltiph they ;_..;_a;'_o (elected. If thc"‘(‘3ollll':t_ry_ be So,l_79’l'fi" led ‘by B__oa.rds_; 1 and . Co_l,l2,nlissiolls we iniight has well have Parliament eliminlatcd, [for if_it,s uses.,are,_gone it.Cal}.llf't lclaiin existence from aiiflornamenltal ‘point of view. .One of the greatest. curses our producing population MS to contend with, as the Hon. ‘Mr. ‘MacDonald has more than once made -clear, is, that a section of wealthy lfarmers are running with the produciing bare and hunting with the trust ‘hounds. It seems thattfarmcrs (‘all only eliminate that ‘element by 1131*” ivorsal organisation, and the establish{mcnt of provincial, or rather district ‘centres, giving every member a VOWB land I‘€SpollSibilit’y that -the Farmcr’s !Union has not hitherto made Po’43i“l~"-