LOANS TO LOCAL BODIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 115, 1 October 1912, Page 4

LOANS TO LOCAL BODIES.

Tf Mr. James Allen's statement, made in the House early on ' Saturday morning is correct, there will be little money this session for back-block developments. AVe are not questioning Mr. Allen's figures, when he says that the Government has an unexhausted borrowing authority of £825,000, against which

there are already commitments of £653,760, but what we are concerned with is whether the allegations are correct that large amounts' were advanced to boroughs which had really no absolute necessity for the money, while there were county councils and other country local bodies crying out for urgent financial assistance. The charge, of course, lies at the door of the late Government. Mr. W. D. S. McDonald, who was Minister of Public Works in the Mackenzie administration, has given a flat denial to the suggestion, and has stated that advances were only made to boroughs when a surplus of the. million loan for public works was available, and he has challenged the present Ministry to point to a single occasion in 1011 when any local authority had been refused a Joan. We do not for one moment suggest that the towns and boroughs of the country have not a* perfect, right to a share in the money raised for the purposes of loans to local bodies, but it has always been tacitly understood that this money was primarily raised, for the purpose of developing the back-blocks and giving assistance to local bodies that are engaged in the work of opening up the hinterlands for settlement. Mr. Allen's statement of the position is, to say the least of it, disquieting, and his admission that the Government, so far as this ear-marked fund is concerned, is practically bankrupt, calls for a complete and immediate explanation. The matter is not, one which ought to be allowed to centre; around party politics, and the suggestion made by Mr. Allen that heavy votes were made :toi"boroughs for political >purpose& just prior to the general election, is one that'is distinctly ungenerous unless he is. in a position; to support it by the : most unimpeachable evidence. We believe' that,, as a matter of fact, many local bodies.that could have 'done with loans shied; at the rate of interest, and deferred ijieit applications under the impression, thati.the- money would'be available at any time,; only to find subsequently that the fund Jiad'becn appropriated by the boroughs of the Dominion in the interim. The statements of-the Government and the Opp.osition are flatly contradictory, and are purely susceptible of some intelligent adjustment. Even if that explanation is satisfactp'fy, we'are, still faced with the position that, the Government has not available the necessary money for urgent roading and bridging all. .over. ) the Dominion. The cry "of "a "poor mouth" may have been raised as ,a preliminary excuse ■■ for! 'further" : borrowing, but that excuse was not necessary'if the Government can .substantiate the charge of .maladministration against .its predecessors'; In any event the country must ,haye the rnonev. and if Mr.-'Massey and his colleagues foil to provide it'their timiire'of office is likely'to be particularly 'short..' They cannot .expect to whitewash themselves from the .bucket of their predecessors' sins;