WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 September 1922, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE BUDGET DEBATE. PRIME MINISTER REPLIES. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Sept. 4. The Budget debate closed on Friday night almost as tamely at is had run on during the preceding fortnight. The Prime Minister got his opportunity to reply shortly after nine o’clock, and began by claiming that the Budget vfras the most exhaustive statement of the country’s financial position ever presented to Parliament. This claim may have been justified, but by his very multitude of words and wealth of detail the Minister definitely limited the number of his readers. Judging from their speeches, not a third of the members who took part in the debate had carefully studied the Budget, and it is reasonable to assume that no larger proportion of those that remained silent had given it any closer consideration. Speaking earlier in the evening, Dr. Newman, a very candid friend of the Government and still on® of the most alert financial critics in the House, had strongly urged that future Budgets should be much shorter and simpler. This represents the general feeling in Parliament, but since the days of Mr. Seddon successive Ministers of Finance seem to have thought it necessary to uphold the dignity of their office by an overwhelming parade of words. NOTHING TO ANSWER. Mr. Massey said, with some measure of truth, that his critics had made out a very poor case for him to answer. To those who had complained that there was no policy in the Budget, he replied that at the present time there could be only one policy —a policy of economy, retrenchment, and increased production. This policy the Government was carrying out to the best of its ability, and he believed the country was satisfied with its efforts. It was quite certain the country would have to go to London for another loan “before the Dominion was done with the aftermath of the war, but the amount would depend upon the fate of certain financial proposals that would be submitted to the House later on.” This guarded utterance is taken to imply that the Bill which has been foreshadowed for the readjustment of the incidence of taxation will include provisions which may effect some reduction in the annual expenditure. There is talk of postponing payments to sinking funds for a few years and of re-arranging the terms of the free of income taxe loans, but so far it is only the merest speculation. LOYALTY. On the whole, Mr. Massey’s reply to such criticism as had been levelled against the Government was quite one of the best efforts in the House this session. He was forceful without being over-aggressive, and tactful without being elusive. But he again was betrayed into an unseemly wrangle with hte Leader of the Labor Party over the question of loyalty. Mr. Holland seems able to draw the Minister on thia subject when ever he pleases, and though he does not help his own case by doing so, he usually manages to ruffle the customary serenity of the head of the Government. The Labor Leader is never quite frank in his professions of loyalty to th? Constitution, and he has an obscure mode of expression which, in addition to bringing discredit upon himself, brings suspicion upon hjs associates. The Prime Minister, on his side, is obsessed by the notion that disloyalty is rampant in the country and so makes statements and draws conclusions in this respect which are wholly unjustified by the facts. There may be a number of workers in the country who are unable to subscribe to Mr. Massey’s definition of loyalty, but there are very few who are actudisloyal. WORK EXPECTED TO BEGIN. Now that the Budget debate is out of the way Parliament is expected to begin work in real earnest. The waste of time during the past two months has been prodigious, and it would be hard to say which side of the House is the more to blame for what has happened; but Mr. Massey is still hopeful of ending the session before the last days of next month. He is assuming, of course, that members themselves are anxious to get away by that time, and that there will be no further unnecessary talking. But with all the assistance the Prime Minister may get from the House he will have considerable difficulty in accomplishing the task he has set himself. Tt is understood there are quite a number of important Government Bills to be introduced, and though Romo of these may be merely election kites, and destined to stop short of their final stages, it would be too much to expect every aspiring member to remain silent during their second reading. It is fairly safe to predict, however, that seven weeks hence Ministers, by hook or by crook, will be free to go electioneering.