NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 773, 23 March 1910, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

Me. Foster Fraseb's views of New Zealand which ws publish in another column will bo read with interest, if not with universal approval. The traveller who rushes through a country and proceeds to write a,book on it does not as a rule form very sound judgments, but Mr. Fraser, in his hurried survey of the Dominion, has got very near the truth in several directions. The people of this country are not likely ito seriously quarrel with our late visitor over his observations concerning the attitude of the New Zealander towards the world at .large. The average New Zealander has a very high opinion of his native land, and very properly so. He may possibly think, as Mr. Fraser says, that it is superior to anything else in the world; and the rest of the world may grow a little weary of having this idea dinned into their ears' when- they come to visit us. But it is a harmless conceit, and if it is not quite so well founded as many people imagine, we at least know that~ New Zealand has been exceedingly' well favoured by Nature, and that it offers a splendid field for the building up of a prosperous nation. The "blatant politicians" , of whom Mr. Fraser writes have no doubt been mainly responsible for spreading the idea that/New Zealand has outstripped the rest of the world—owing, of course, to the supreme, ability of the "blatant politician" himself— but we havo very strong hopes that the day of this class of politician in the Dominion is drawing to a close. There are one or two points in Mr. Fraser's article that really deserve attention. The sensitiveness of the New. Zealan,der tc criticism is one of these. The public is quite familiar with the attitudo of Ministers towards criticism. A newspaper that ventures to point out an evil practice that is likely to affect the finances of the country, instead of being regarded as doing a public service, is immediately assailed as unpatriotic, and charged with endeavouring to injure the credit of the country. It is a mean and flimsy method of attempting to stifle free comment on public affairs, but there are people who do not appear to realise, this. Mr. Fraser's references to the readiness with which public bodies and the Government plunge into debt will probably appeal to thinking people. ' .

It is not difficult to borrow money, he comments, .so New Zealand is piling , up mortgages on its future. There are folk who say that New.Zealand will one of these daya'break her back under the weight of debt. The New Zealander laughs and the Prime Minister borrows another million.

This is the situation as it appears to the outsider, and he is not very far :astray. ,

Some time ago we corrected the error of a local contemporary which somehow believed that ; the British election had resulted in a win for the Budget. It had added together the Liberals, Labourites, and Nationalists as the, Budget party; but, as we pointed out at the time, tho Nationalists arc anti-Budget men. The Spectator, , to hand this week, confirms this view:

"The 275 Liberals and the 40 Labour members must of course be regarded one and all as representing opinion, in favour of the Budget. The.Nationalists, on the other hand, both Redmondite and Independent, must ho counted as representing opinion distinctly against it. Remember that the Nationalists.in the last Parliament not only voted against the. reading, but even abstained on the third reading, though the agreement that if supported the Government at the elections they were to be given Home Eule had already been agreed on in principle. To count them as proBudget, or even as neutral on the Budget, is impossible. We will venture to assert that not one , of them at the elections expressed regret for having voted against the second reading or declared that he had been since converted to the Budget." , . .

The actual real majority against the Budget works out at 355 (Unionists and Nationalists) t0.315., A cable message received yesterday fully bears out this view of the facts. It reports that Mr. Redmond, speaking at Liverpool, said:

"The whisky duties brought no revenue. It was quite possible to exempt the , small owners in Ireland from the new death duties and stamp duties, and the email Irish breweries from tho license taxes. Irish land must be exempted from valuation. Such concessions would not affect the character of the Budget as' a great Democratic measure."

Remove the liquor clauses, the death duties, tha stamp duties,' and the valuation proposals, and what is left of the Budget 1 Mr. Redmond's statement simply means that his party will not have the thing. Irishmen and Sassenacbs everywhere will join in appreciating the delightful humour of Mr. Redmond's final sentence. We can imagine, the inward chuckle with which tho Nationalist leader assured.the Government that Ireland would regard the Budget with reverence and admiration if it were only kept on the right side oi St. George's Channel.

Ministers must often feel a little depressed at the' wrong-headedness of their audiences. On Monday night, for example, Mr. Millar was speaking on national defence, and in the course of it he referred to the National Debt.. "The Navy," he said, "was the first line of defence. Possibly there was another equally strong, and that was the Dominion's National Debt. (Laughter.) So long as they owed the Motherland so much money, she would tako mighty good care to protect New Zealand. (Ecnewed laughter.)" We aro not prepared to deny that from some points of view national defence and a National Debt of head are excruciatingly funny things, either separately or in conjunction. But we are quite sure that the "laughter" and the "renewed laughter" surprised Mr. Millar. The audience, wo should say, were oxpected to furnish "applause" and ■renewed ajeplauea".; foi Mb. Mil-

lab's idea must have been statesmanship, and not mere humour. So, when the Attorney-General urged last year that the more heavily taxed you are the better off you are, he was received with "applause," when in reality he expected "laughter." At the same time Mr. Millar has greatly assisted all future discussions of the National Debt.