The Brink of Ruin.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17806, 4 July 1923, Page 10

The Brink of Ruin.

It is a little rough on some of his lugubrious critics that Mr Massey should hare included in his Budget iuch 'devastating statistical comparisons. Ever since Reform was seen to ; be secure in the saddle, its opponents J have been crying to Heaven that it b J rushing us all straight to ruin. "Wo j do not know how often the country has ) been on the "brink of disaster 1 ' —half j a dozen times at least every session, i dTi'l innumerable times during each ] general and by-election. In the da>3 | of Mr Seddon every good thing that j happened to the country was his work j —the growth of towns, a naw mile of 1 railway, seasonable harvest weather, a ! decline in eheep-ticks or in the activity of jSTgaruahoe: ©very bad thing that has happened since—with the possible exception oi the German declaration of war —has been due to Mr Massey. But somehow or other wo race farther and ! farther away from that dreadful firink ! on which the Liberals are always Brood- j ing. Statistics for the last ten years- j during which Mr Massey has been m office —show that the Dominion's popu-1 lation (inclusive of Maoris) haß ! increased by 19 per cent., in spite of a bloody, five years' war and the most ghastly visitation of sickness that any young country 1 has ever experienced. Imports for that period have gone up 63 per cent, and exports 98 per cent., or our total trade 83 per cent. —in spite of a two years' depression, which for suddenness has no equal at all, and for severity can be paralleled only by going back to the days immediately following the disastrous wars with Napoleon. Ten years ago tho wages bill of our secondary industries was o§ millions of pounds; today it is lli millions. We produced then 31J millions' worth of goods; we produce now goods worth more than 67J millions. In'lSll the value of the landj buildings, machinery and plant devoted to manufacture was 14 millions; by last year the figures had been reversed —41 millions. And during the same period we have learnt how to produce and export 71 per cent, more wool, 37 per cent, more mutton (in pounds sterling 115 per cent, more), 196 per cent, more butter (333 per cent, more in value), 101 per cent, more cheese and 704 pGr cent, more fruit. It would not be kind to go on repeating all the dramatic surprises for the period that Mr Massey so ruthlessly revealed last night; but if we abstain from "rubbing it in," we hope that the critics of tho Government will consider themselves also now Irom repeating their foolish old parrot cries. Mr Massey neither claims, nor permits his friends to claim for him, credit for' what belongs to Providence, vigorous and courageous settlers, a glorious climate and a fertile soil. He says only that the country has not bsen very badly mismanaged which shows such a and that the preachers of -Qessinrisni have neither a political nor an economic leg to stand on.