The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 1920. THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3490, 19 May 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 19, 1920. THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

~ Withwhich is iucorpol-ated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.”

Newspapers throughout the Dominion are, almost without exception, bewailing_ the lack of material in the Reform ranks in Parliainent, from which to form an ordinarily passable Cabinet. Many of them are sympathising with the Prime4Ministcr in the poverty of fitness for Cabinet work in his following, and they are criticising the reconstructed Ministry resignedly, rather than with hope. Why newspapers of all politicai colour should sympathise with Mr Massey is not quite understandable. Before the recent general election he had the selection of his candidates for political honours, upon whom .he ‘placed the Reform Hallmark; if he selected unfit men, he ought to be the subject of blame, rather than of sympathy. If in selecting a plastic following Mr Massey passed by candidates with that high-class intelligenee that wouldaloneqfit thept for governing and conducting the country’s affairs at this terrible impasse, he alone is culpable for a. Parliament that is distinctly mediocre, judged from the Reform view—point. Political power, the pulling of the public purse strings. constitutes a magnet that fefv ambitious, avaricio‘us men can resist; they will ‘move ‘heaven and earth to get it, even if their strivings result in the setting up of a body of men who are admittedly incapable of the stupenduous duties they will be called upon to perform. To View the elected House, and the recently appointed Cabinet, together with the legislative work that has grown out of incapable finance and execrable administration there is seen the utmost cause for concern and alarm; indeed,_one need well ask where can the people look for something comforting in the way of a read out” of the dillieullies with which theyare politically, industrially, commercially, financially, and socially beset. There is not one brigltt -spot in -the lieavy, black pall of clouds with which a stl'uggle"‘for power by a Typhon, who is not mythical, has covered this Dominion’s political simution. The revellings of proliteering perniifted without interference’ have not sitisfied the greed of the revellers, while they have evoked Dominionwide Inisery. concern, :1111.1. alarm amongst the masses of the people. The comparative few who have grown rich on a policy of spoilation are striving in desperation to discover how they can escape the taxation that must follow, before Parliament meets; for they are quite aware that the millions received from New Zealand loans; the millions from oppressive revenue, and the millions that a previous Minister of Finance had saved against the evil day he" saw coming in the near future, are all spent. and they are equally aware that nothing of a tangible reconstructive nature of any importance has been acomplished that offers anything from which taxation may ‘-be collected. The riot and re\'elr_v stage has reached its height, and what statesman in the new Parliament can be depended upon to handle the retributive stage that must follow. What section of taxpayers has been so onlarged as to make the volume of revenue any greater, of what. increase in any avenue of production has been secured that will add one penny to the count:-y’s income? -Such questions lnay not be altogether palatable, but they are essentially pertinent. Is the policy of reconstruction of the present

diiferent to that xolluwcd in the past,

or that which is :0 be followed in the future? ls land settlement to be largely a scheme of merely buying out a political friend at land-boom. figures, and rcplacin-g him with a returned soldier, in the future, as it has been in the past?‘ If that is to continue it is hopeless to look for either increased land settlement, at greater volume of revenue, or increased production. The import and export trade reflects the drift towards disaster as much as the insane land policy of the past. The producers of this eounTr‘y-were led blindly into ‘disposing of -their produce for years at half the price other exporting countries received, and how have they been reeompeiisedtl The requisition comes to an end on the 30th of next month, and how do our meat-growers, view the future ‘l Nobody cares about their congestion of meat in cold store, or that is fast becoming unmarketable; they have to get their storage empty the best way they can; they were fed up on promises of ships tgat never ma-terialised, and in the end they awake from the hypnotic sleep into which trust .manipulatiolls and manoeuvres forced them, to find that their very existence as meatgrowers depends upon dancing to the fuux, played by meat. trust pipersBritish meat nlongel‘el‘S hpa-V9 DOW plainly said that the only outlet. for meat in store is through America, which means that the meat has to be sold to the American trust for sale elsewhere at a muchly enhanced price, with an additional 100 per cent profit resulting from a favourable exchange rate. The benefit of diferential exchange rates are withheld from New Zealand farmers for they are only allowed ships to transport their meat to such countries ‘as sliip.-owners please. While Mr W. M. Hughes and the Hon. Mr Watt: are looking after the interests of Australian producers, what is being done in the interests of production in New Zealand? Let he who can answer that. question. Only a. few trading profiteers have benefittcd by the policy of destruction pursued in this Dominion‘, and that few are now busy in trying -to persuade the political leader that the people will tamely bear the taxation brunt of their satanic orgies. The policy of government persisted in seems to be based upon an erroneously assumed weakness and tameness of the people, but can future peace and tranquility be hoped for from any such assumption? Does the present governing system impress one with echo thought that it is the creation of statesmenship of a high order, and that it is all-potential to meet Parliafnent next month with a. statement of accounts and a budget that will prove all-satisfying; productive of absolute social and industrial peace, ‘tranquility ans} contentment‘? No such a position can even reasonably be hoped for, and that is why universal pity is being evoked for the man who occupies the highest position of responsibility. The whole country is steeped in wondernlent about what" will happen, and it is widespreadly predicted by political nieteorologists that Wellington is shortly to become an unpreeedentedly distracted political storm cclltrc. It is rightly contended that :1 tool can criticise, while few can point out the way to improvement. but the present administration has built up so much to criticise and left open the need for so much improvement that it would require at much larger newspaper than this for a whole year to deal adequately with both. Briefly we may outline a policy of improvement that would be beneficial if intelligently put into operation. First, reverse the present land policy\that has resulted in n drift of the people ‘from the fields of produ<ition to the (torigested streets and alloys of the great cities. and then sanely, _7l'.ls!ly_ honour:=.bl_v. inflexibly a(‘.:niniste.r the laws that are already 111K:-1‘. the Statute Book. Special needs of‘ the Future are too zit:-:21)’. of too great

:1 nmgnitude. mu‘. of too much import {mm} to permit of opitomisation.