THE POWER OF THE PURSE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9077, 29 April 1908, Page 4

THE POWER OF THE PURSE.

There were one or two interesting points in Mr Massey's remarks to a Timaru press interviewer on Saturday. The Leader of the Opposition, alluding to the present system of allocating the Public Works Fund, averred that there was not one member in Parliament who knew 5 per cent, of the roads lie was voting expenditure for; and that is a fact. The principle of reciprocity is largely adopted by members in this matter. "You support my district and I'll support yours," is the agreement come to whether the proposed allocations are justifiable or not. Mr Massey does not blame members for this; nor, indeed, can anyone reasonably do so, because under the present system there is no other effective course open. The system, however, as we pointed out ir a recent article, and as Mr Massey has frequently contended, and now emphasises, is bad. It is worse than merely bad; it ia iniquitous. It enables the Government of the day to coerce members, and leads to tne political demoralisation of the people. In the opinion of the Leader of the Opposition, the difficulty of the annual doles, with the periodic struggle in the House for the political loaves and fishes can only be remedied by the Government retaining in their charge the 1 main arterial roads, and leaving the rest to the local bodies to look after,, assisting the latter, not by spasmodic sums doled out by the medium of wire-pulling, but according to a fixed scale which would in every case make the district receiving the benefit bear the greater part of the burden. The idea is by no means a new one, but a scheme of this kind, or any scheme which would lessen the Ministerial power of the purse, is hardly likely to meet with favour from the present Administratis. There is another point to which Mr Massey made allusion during the interview referred to, and that is that while in ordinary years the total grant for local roads is about *300,000, during election year the grant suddenly rises to £500,000. The occurrence is too uniform to be considered a coin cidence.' This year the Minister of Finance proposes to put on an additional £200,000 for roads and bridges, and to earmark a similar grant for five yeard; but he has not given any indication of the principle upon which the money is to be allocated. It will still leave him absolute master of the situation. It is a high tribute, indeed, to the inherent capacities of the dominion that it flourishes as it does under, or rather despite, the workings of so badly-regulated a political machine.