WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 November 1921, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

ECONOMY CAMPAIGN. SPREADING THE GOSPEL. ■ ?7 *.■ (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Nov. 9. The deputation of business men that waited upon the Prifaie Minister last week to urge the absolute necessity for a large reduction in the national expenditure, at least may take credit to itself for having induced Mr. Massey to g ; vo the pubile a larger measure of his confidence in regard to financial matters than he previously had been in the habit of doing. Unfortunately the Financial Statement was within a few hours of delivery when rhe deputation placed its case for economy before the Minister, and any alteration in its tenor was at that stage out of the question, but Mr. Massey told the deputation a good deal more about the financial position of the country than he told the House in his subsequent recital of the departmental figures. The statement he made in' Auckland on Monday was practically a reiteration of the one he had made here four days before, and should have left no one who heard it unconvinced of the urgent need for public and private selfdenial. With the expenditure mounting up at the rate of four or five millions a year (ho fact should have needed no demonstration.

1 BLESSINGS TO COME. i The faults business men here arc fir.d- -,' ing with. Mr. Massey’s attitude towards the economy campaign are, first, that L his savings are mainly in the nebulous ' stage, somewhere away in the future, ; and then that his appeal for the maini tenance of the cheerful countenance rests ; on the assumption that no one but him* ] selr recognises the importance of keep* j ing a stout heart in these difficult times. ; He says that annual savings amount ing •to £4,57'8,000 can be effected, but that j the whole of thenj will not be realised I until two years hence. What proportion . of them is to be delayed until that time i has not been disclosed, but the fact that the discontinuance of the butter and wheat subsidies and the cessation of I public works are to be counted among the “savings” in departmental expenditure suggests that much of the economy to be merely a paper economy after all. At any rate, pious resolutions made at the end of 1921 will be very apt to be forgotten at the end of 1922. As for the cheerful countenance, this is largely a matter of temperament, and there can be tio question that New Zealand as a whole is facing its difficultiewith a stout heart. i THE T ARIFF. Many different opinions are being expressed concerning the new Customs tariff, most of them unfavorable and many of them based upon purely personal grounds. It was thought there would be some sort of unanimity in regard to t'he increased duties on beer and spirituous liquors, but it seems now that the licensed victuallers are by no means alone in protesting against further burdens l being placed upon people “who already j are the heaviest payers of voluntary tax- | ation.” As far as Parliament is concern- i ed it looks as if Mr. Massey would have | to rely almost entirely upon the prohi- | bition members for the support he wil j require in saddling the additional excise j on to beer. Quite a number of “Moder- | ate” members on his own side of the i House are calling out against this “crowning injustice” to the working man. The increase in the duty on spirituous j liquors is not likely to arouse so much indignation, since whisky is not the common beverage of the average worker, and Mr. Massey may find his way to a compromise through making a concession on the less ardent liquor. The “Trade” is still strong enough in politics to make itself heard on an occasion of this kind. THE BUDGET DEBATE, If members say all the things they are rehearsing in the lobbies just now, the debate on the Financial Statement, which will begin in the House this week, will be a long and strenuous one. Probably there is not a single member of any party that lias not been deluged with communications from his constituents sugI gesting that he should take this line or that in regard to the Government’s finI ance policy and its tariff proposals. I Members may not be a'ble to please all i their constituents—though that, of course, is the feat they woud like, to accomplish—but they cannot afford to remain silent in these days as many members did during the war, in the sacred name of patriotism. The tariff proposals will be legitimate subjects for duscussion in the debate, and with the growing demand for the further protection of local industries, it will be surprising it” they do not constitute the main theme of many a labored speech. Economy will be talked as a matter of course, and if members put themselves “on side” by re- . ducing their own .salaries, there will be many things they can say to the advan- . tage of both the Government and the country. ;