A MINISTERIAL DEFENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10269, 22 June 1911, Page 4

A MINISTERIAL DEFENCE.

The mote of warning isounded hy Mr Harold Beanehaimp, Manager of the Bank of New Zealand, appears to have .grated on the ears of Ministers of the .Crown. They do not appreciate advice, even though it he given in a most kindly ©pint. In point of faet, it is timpleaisant to any 'person who is given to extravagance to have economy drummed into his ears. For this reason", the Minister for Agriculture (Hon. T. Mackenzie) may he excused for having devoted .so much attention to Mr Beauchamp',9 warning, in his speech at the Palmerston Winter Show. There was ahsolntely nothing in .the Minister's 'statement which cam; upset .the > contention that where a country's expenditure is greater than its receipts it is going to the bad. Be .sought to show that the period mentioned by Mr Beaaichamip was an exceptionail one. This, howr ever, s».<no argument, for the reason that the Dominion .should always be prepared' for exceptional yearn. When, however, the Hon. T. Mackenzie tells--us that the internal wealth of the Dominion hais increased by £211,000,000/since'lßß9, he applies a severe .test to lour creduility. Asua matter of fact .this wealth is merely on paper. It- is a value placed upon it iby the Government for the purposes of taxation. In reality it does not exist. The true tfest of an exporting country's prosperity is not what its assets aire worth, but the value of its .exports. To tell a. man who has> ibusiness premises worth £IOO,OOO that he is hotter off when he is making a Hioss than when he is making aA profit, is to trifle with his common-isense. This is what the Hon. T. Mackenzie is doing.