The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 1933. THE STATE AS CREDITOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 196, 21 August 1933, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 1933. THE STATE AS CREDITOR.

For Ihe cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistant For the future in the d'stance, And the good chat we c-n» do.

The State as a creditor has a difficult path to tread in these times. Memories of liberal lending in the post-war years seem to have bred an impression that the Government, through its Departments, is always able to be more considerate and generous than others in the matter of debts. The Government, however, may have something to say in this matter. A straw in the wind was the statement of the of Lands last week that many who were in a position to pay irrigation dues in Central Otago were showing such disinclination to ■continue their payments that the Government was not encouraged to undertake further drainage works. It is not the first time that attention has been drawn to the trouble, for the falling-off in payments by debtors of the Crown has been a matter for official comment in the past year. At the end of September last the charges on loans to settlers were in arrears by over £1,000,000, and there was a shortage in rent and interest payments to the Lands Department of, more than £ 1,800,000. Later returns would probably show that these figures have been considerably increased. Much of this money, no doubt, will be recoverable when conditions improve, and the failure to pay is due in many instances to the impossibility of meeting charges on the former scale at the present level of prices. But the difficulty over irrigation goes deeper. The Minister indicates a reluctance to pay where the means can be found. Some of the charges on account of such works in Otago must weigh heavily on farmers, and perhaps if the debtor's side of the case were heard it would be found that there is a feeling the Government was too lavish in the first instance with its money. Drainage schemes, like public works generally, were allowed to exceed the estimates of cost, and only when the slump came .was it realised that this policy was a great mistake. New Zealand does not want a repetition of it, and if the Minister's statement is to be interpreted as an assurance that the Government realises this, it is welcome. Irrigation activities should not be under political control, but should be the responsibility of a national board of works.