NEW ZEALAND'S "INDISPENSABLE" PREMIER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7830, 24 June 1909, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND'S "INDISPENSABLE" PREMIER.

To the Editor. Sir, —Your report of Sir Joseph Ward's farewell address to the people of New Zealand on the eve of his departure for London reads well and looks well dressed up m print. Some of his address to Parliament on ways and means, especially his proposal to borrow another two or three million, and the admission of that little debt of nearly seventy-one millions is interesting enough reading. But clothe it as you will,, it does not read so well or look so well as his parting address. I make no pretence at understanding Sir Joseph's budget of figures, and it every one m New Zeland spoke the truth I guess nineteen out of every twenty would admit the same. But perhans the figures are not meant to be understood. What is meant by consolidated funds. Government bonds, gilt-edged securities, big surpluses, etc? I know not, unless consolidated means the solid lump of gold seventy millions would roll into. Government bonds may mean binding the people of New Zealand to pay; gilt-edged securities seem to sound like some "Brumagem" goods, gilded over to please the eye, but of little value. We hear a good deal of talk annually about the big surplus from receipts over expenditure, and I make bold to assert that the'greatest business clown m New Zealand could also show a surplus on the year's transactions if he could always borrow just the amount he required at the time he made his balance. I never was much good at mathematics, and I am getting too old now to learn; but, approximately, every man, woman and child m New Zealand iss carrying a debt of seventy pounds on their shoulders, and by the time Sir Josoph retuns to the dominion the'debt will pvobably have reached the aristocratic title of guineas. Talk about the decrease m the birth-rate! No wonder thero arc bo few arrivals at* "Port Natal." Speak of infantile mortality! The wonder is that so many survive/ burdened as they are from birth with a seventy-guinea load of debt. . c . We are accustomed to hear »ir Joseph styled the "Wizard of Finance. There may be something m it, ior a wizard is generally associated m the minds of most'of' us with something uncanny, something supernatural, and the wav jn wjiich this wizard of finance has bewitched the public with big surpluses, and ?it tho same time keeping m the back-ground the borrowed millions which assist materially, it not entirely, m creating these surpluses, would'tend to make one believe that he has not been mis-called. Doubtless the people of Ne\yt Zealand were ignorant of tho fact that theie I is at least one indisnensable individual m the dominion; that the business of the country could not be earned on m his absence; and, suffering as he evidently is, from an attack of swcllodH his presence m London is likewise indispensable Sometimes, you know, sir, theunexnected happens, and it may so happen illS when Sir Joseph comes to face the music m 1911, if not before that, he might make the astounding discoveTv that he has been labouring under a delusion Robert McNab got three years' holiday to finish his book, and Sir Robert Stout, who at one time thought .that Perhaps he was nidispensab c got-ieU, lie got a billet to keep him out of mischief 1 The handwriting on the wall is significant, if public opinion is anything to go by, and oueht not to require the wisdom or a Daniel to interpret, for it is simple, and .would read something like this : "The evil day js drawing nigh—surely, swiftly; and' when Sir Joseph \\ard contemplates taking another pleasure trip to London the people of New Zealand may, m their wisdom and with their usual liberality, allow him to pay his own fare there and back—if he desires to come." . , At any rate, we all wish Sir Joseph a pleasant voyage, and devoutly hope that he will display more wisdom at the Naval Conferencp m London than he lifts done at Cabinet-making m the dominion, One of his latest productions declares crime to bo rampant and criminals m the ascendancy—so much so that about one-tenth of the population of the dominion are not only criminals, but habitual criminals, and, of course, deserve punishment —first, for their crime; and. secondly, confinement m a reformatory asylum until they are brought to see the error of their ways, or show some sign of repentance" and returning sanity. Itj seems a- pity that owning a piece of; land should be a crime, because the desire to do so is inherent' m most j of us, and it is still more regrettable! that the very Government of which Sir Joseph Ward was a Cabinet Minister should aid and abet m making criminals m this fair land of ours by practically granting tho fee simple of a block of land to hundreds of people m the shape of the perpetual lease system. No doubt a cabinet-maker produces some very necessary and useful t furniture. ; for' example, a ward-robe is very useful, although not absolutely indispensable, and a great ni^ny famjljes have to do without that useful piec^ of furnlburo. None of us, however., can do without some kind of a robe for covering and comfort; but I yei-jly believe that the people of New Zeateni «ml<J, *n4 would, (jjet along all

right without the " Ward," notwithstanding that gentleman's own notions about his indispensableness. TAMMY DAWNSHIRE. June 22, 1909.