WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 May 1921, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

DEPARTMENTAL EXPENDITURE. ' HUGE INCREASE. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, May 25. When the Dominion newspaper says the growth of departmental expenditure during the last few years is alarming, it is little wonder that less friendly critics of the Government find in the mounting millions evidence of waste, and. extravagtancte. Plie Dominion is quite frank and emphatic in the expression of its view of the position. “It is obviously necessary,” it A says, “not only that the rate of increase should be checked, ’but also that every reasonable means should be taken of effecting administrative economies where they are possible.” It is a question of possibility, it seems, and on this point there are inevitable differences of opinion. The departmental expenditure, which increased at the rate of ifcbout £340,000 a year from 1912-13 to 1917-18, increased by £1,003.271 in 1918-19, by £2,938,114 in 1919-20, and by the colossal stun of .£3,441,141 in 1920-21. Last year, of the total national expenditure of £28,000,000, nearly £16,000,000, to quote the Dominion’.? own figures, were spent upon State departments.

HOW THE MONEY GOES. That the war itself had nothing to do with the increase in the departmental expenditure is made plain by the fact that the annual charges were actually less during the war years than they were in the two years before. Presumably the explanation of this is that certain services which previously had been charged to the departments were transferred to the war fund. This was convenient and not improper. But what the less generous critics of the Government are now proclaiming is that, until Ministers awoke to the fact that New Zealand was to be involved in a worldVj/de financial crisis, they made no attempt even to “taper off” the expenditure of the departments, which had got altogether out of hand while money was flowing into the country from the sale of its products at war prices. Of course the increase in pay and the extension of services account for a large part of the growth in the expenditure, but they do not fully answer the indictmgfats that are being launched against the Government.

THE UNEMPLOYED PROBLEM. It seems almost incredible that Mr. J. McCombs, the member for Lyttelton, can really have made the statement attributed to him by the Press Association, declaring - that the “unmeployed problem was being deliberately engineered by the Government for the purpose of keeping down wages.” Mr. McCombs, though loyal to his colleagues of the extreme Labor Party, has a much better sense of proportion and of the fitness of things than has his political chief, Mr. H. E. Holland, and his friends here refuse to believe him capable of uttering such a palpable absurdity. The Dominion, however, accepting the Press Association’s version of Mr. McCombs’ utterance, proceeds to read the Labor Party a very severe lecture upon the choice of its leaders. Every word of this would be fully justified were it shown that the member for Lyttelton had betrayed such a poor opinion of the intelligence of hds constituents and such an unhappy conception of his representative responsibilities. Meanwhile, however, it may be wise to reserve judgment. THE RACING COMMISSION. The Racing Commission—sometimes called the Totahsator Commission and sometimes the Gaming Commission—which is to make recommendations to the Government in regard to the issue and distribution of totalisator permits, is expected to present its report towards the end of next week. The report will be considered by the Minister of Internal Affairs, and in due course will be considered by Cabinet. If it recommends an increase in the number of permits, and Ministers concur, the recommendation will have to be submitted to Parliament for approval. That will be in accordance with the promise given by Mr. Massey during the passage of t-he empowering legislation. Buit, as Parliament probably will not meet till August, it will be impossible to definitely allot any new permits that may be authorised till some time after the commencement of the racing season. That, however, will be the trouble of the racing clubs, which will suffer, like some other national institutions, through the absence of the head of the Government from the Dominion.