DIFFICULTIES OF GOVERNMENT

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21086, 10 February 1934, Page 14

DIFFICULTIES OF GOVERNMENT

+ VARIED DESIRES OF PEOPLE STATEMENT BY PRIME MINISTER (r«ESS ASSOCIATION IELEQBAM.) AUCKLAND, February 9. "The Government is responsible for carrying out a policy for the welfare of the people as a whole," said the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon G. W. Forbes), when declaring open the Royal Show at Auckland to-day. "If the Government guided its policy according to the discontent it encountered, the country would soon be in the ditch." Mr Forbes said that he would guarantee that even the malcontents could not pass legislation to please everybody. In the country districts the complaint was common that they could not get men to do the work oflermg. He had heard that dozens of times. In the cities he was told that there was no work for the men to do. In the country the Government was blamed for making conditions so easy in the cities that the men would not go into the country to work. In the cities he was told that they were making conditions so hard that the men could not live. It was hard to draw the line between these statements. The Work Done "However," he added, "we are endeavouring with the funds at our disposal to do our best for those with whom we have so much sympathy. Every penny of the £4,000,000 we arc raising is being expended." No country was doing its taskmore thoroughly, a«3 the people of no country were putting their hands in their pockets to the same extent. The Government could not be charged, therefore, with not doing its best.

The schemes to provide work were all designed to give the best value for the money spent, and to aid the men as much as possible. It had often been said that the Government had had to do many unpleasant things owing to the financial stringency, but he thought it could be claimed that it did not sit down and do nothing.