THIS SHAM DEMOCRACY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 32, 8 February 1939, Page 10

THIS SHAM DEMOCRACY.

Professor Algie reminds tie that two or three Ministers have thrown the whole country topsy-turvy without consulting Parliament. Well, even if the two or three Ministers who run this country in a high-handed despotic manner had called Parliament together their blind would have sanctioned the licensing of imports and the giving of a free hand. As for the Opposition, the Government is so cocksure that it is right that the Opposition may as well stay at home. The people of this country have not suddenly become Socialists, yet" in our Government we have gone from one extreme to another. We can thank the heartless muddling of the Forbes-Coatee Government for the sorry mess we are drifting into. New Zealand is* like a large farm. If a farmer neglected his cowe and sheep and his routine work to make a lot of improvements that could wait he would soon bfe bankrupt. Yet this is exactly what New Zealand" is doing. Instead of developing a poor man's land settlement policy we have a Public Works policy run mad. Something can be said for a vigorous roading policy, and perhaps for finishing partly-built railways, but to go on building new railways is madness. We have drawn men from farm work to public works, and our production is dropping. Here is the real evil, but the Government ie going to make things worse by restricting imports, and it will be a few months before the evil effects of this foolish act are fully felt. E. STEVENSON.