Thank you for correcting the text in this article. Your corrections improve Papers Past searches for everyone. See the latest corrections.

This article contains searchable text which was automatically generated and may contain errors. Join the community and correct any errors you spot to help us improve Papers Past.

Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

The Daily News. SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1922. MINISTERIAL LOGIC.

Those who charge Mr. Massey with undertaking far more work and responsibility than any other Minister should shoulder in connection with the administration of the country’s affairs, fail to recognise that practically he has no option, for the simple reason that those of his supporters in the House possessing the qualifications for Ministerial rank are few. This weakness is evident .on occasions when Ministers are called upon to defend the Government’s policy in the House. Admittedly there are few men who can fill the role of convincing debaters, yet there are times when the Government suffers by reason of Ministerial indiscretions, whereby loop’holes for hostile assaults are created and false impressions disseminated, not intentionally, but from the inability to present, facts in such a way as to carry the impress of logic and conviction. When defending the Governments land purchases for soldiers on Wednesday night, the Hon. E. P. Lee asserted that it was the price our produce was bringing, and not the amount spent by the Government, put. up the price of land. The price of produce was certainly an important factor, but Mr. Lee must know that the law of supply and demand is the dominant factor in all such matters. In other words, that it is competition that, rules values. That the Government was a competitor for land

I for returned soldiers cannot be l questioned. At the same time, to ( contend that it was the country i which forced the Government to ! give inflated values for land for i soldier settlement cannot be subi stantiated. Certainly there was a i general desire that, soldiers wanti ing to go on the land should be ■ helped to do so. All that the i Government was pledged to do i was to find land for these men. I When the pledge was given it was I understood apparently erron- ! eously—that as increased produci tion was imperative, there would !be a systematic cutting up of Crown lands so as to bring a large.ly increased area under cultiva- ' tion, though it was recognised i that small areas of improved land i suitable for partially disabled men ! would have to be purchased; also i that the repatriated men would have to be financed until their ■ land was productive. The Govi eminent had at least two years in : which to evolve a satisfactory proi vision of Crown lands for returned 1 soldiers, but nothing was done, ! hence when the claims for lard j were made the Government had to i purchase improved land and bei come a competitor with opeeulai tors, thus forcing up values. With I the then prices for produce there ! was a possibility of the purchas- ! ers making good, but. there was no i suggestion that in the ' event of I loss the Government would have (to make good, though such a rei suit way have been deemed inevij table. The loss, of course, falls on i the public. The fact is that, instead of conserving the accumulated surpluses to meet just. such, a stringency as later arrived, the money was poured out like water as long as it, lasted, whereas, hut | for the policy of drift, land might i have been provided out of the i areas belonging to the Crown. I and, instead of the repatriated ! men replacing existing producers, > they would have become addition- ; al producers, and the worst of the j land boom evil avoided. Mr. Lee (•signally failed to convince in ' handling this subject, the only satisfactory part of his statement i being that the losses, so far, only ( amount to some 2300,000. Mr. Lee was equally unhappy in dealing ! with retrenchment matters, and i twitting the Opposition with not I having suggested how expenditure i could be cut down. Theoretically it. is the duty of all members of Parliament to assist in the government of the country, but in practice the party in power has. to justify its existence by carrying out a policy of some kind or another. Logically, if they have to look to the Opposition, they have no moral right to retain office, and it is no part of the duty of the Opposition to supply a policy except at election times. Rarely has a Minister been so unhappy in his contentions as was Mr. Lee on Wednesday night. He we-.t out of his way to elicit from the Labor Party the charge of distorting the position by asserting that Labor’s way of cutting down expenditure was i not paying interest. No one pos- ; sessed of a grain of statesmanship would have voiced such a charge. There were so many other perfectly legitimate, lines of attack upon Labor’s policy open that it is surprising Mr. Lee prejudiced his ease in this way. Now that the Government is faced with a serious financial position it is only fair to assume that it. will persevere in its efforts to adjust finances. As we have pointed out above, there has in the past been a good deal of drift, especially over the settlement of soldiers, occasioned no doubt, by the Prime Minister’s absence from the Dominion on important Imperial affairs, and the lack of initiative shown by his colleagues during that time. Matters. however, are not helped by such arguments as those used by Mr. Lee.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19220826.2.23

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1922, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
891

The Daily News. SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1922. MINISTERIAL LOGIC. Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1922, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1922. MINISTERIAL LOGIC. Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1922, Page 4

Help

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert