A WITTY DESCRIPTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3019, 16 October 1908, Page 4

A WITTY DESCRIPTION.

A knot of farmers in Queen Street, Masterton, were discussing the Socialistic tendencies of the Government, and one of them strongly averred that the man on the land not only kept the man in the town, but that at the present rate of the progress of Socialism, the time would soon come when the farmer would be unable to maintain ttie townsman. "Ob, don'tjget alarmed, V commented a well-known settler, "You see if you can't pull through, your place will be sold,* then someone else will take it, and he will keep you. That ie how it is going to be worked in future."

PUBLIC WORKS EXPENDITURE. The most urgent question before the people of this Dominion and that which, in proportion to its importance, receives the least attention, is that of finance. The Dominion is borrowing millions at a rate that is utterly reckless, and spending thousands on works that do ,not represent real assets. A great deal is heard about "reproductive" works, but the fact remains that our Public Works Estimates enumerate a large number of items, representing hundreds of thousands of pounds which are in no sense reproductive, and which do not represent any permanent value tor the money that is borrowed for them. To borrow money for these works is entirely indefensible, remarks the "Southlaud Times,*' and is, moreover, an invitation to ultimate financial disaster. i