The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1911. THE PRIME MINISTER'S DEFENCE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1028, 18 January 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1911. THE PRIME MINISTER'S DEFENCE.

It is a little odd that wo should reccivo from Christchurch a report of what tho Prime Minister said about the five million loan in his speecK at St. Itildu, Duncdin, on, Monday night. We are glad, however, to get the speech, which, to every observer of Now Zealand politics, is full of cvidcnce that tho Prime Minister recogniscs the weakness'of his position in connection with that inglorious borrowing transaction. Had he any case at all ho would not have revived that stupid suggestion, which has long ceased to.excite any -feeling but amusement, and which his admirers had hoped he had for ever abandoned, that those critics arc "decrying the country" who know and who say that the country is a good country intolerably misgoverned. But a sense of humour was never Sir Joseph M'ard's strong point. ."What-," ho asked, "were thc facts'!" And he had the assurance to say that the fact was that "nearly every financial journal of consequence in England had referred to it as a satisfactory ' transaction,".. Ho knows, and the public knows, that the, fact. is that, with almost perfect unanimity the financial critics in London declared that the loan had been a fiasco ,and a failure. Wo have placed their statements on record. But it happens that Sir Joseph Ward himself, when boasting of the success of tho April loan of £1,850,000; laid down in his last Financial . Statement a standard of, success in flotation measured 'by which . the £5,000,000,10 an was_a dismal.failure. But the most striking evidence of weakness and anger in the -speech was tho ludicrous passage in which ho sought to inflame Dunedin against the people who arc so base, so eager to injure the country, as to seek safer fiolds than Now Zealand .for tho investment of-their capital. "That was the way," he cried, "in which, they were attempting to restore confidence and maintain the credit of the Dominion!" As good citizens, we presume, it was their duty to maintain the credit of the Dominion by leaving their property to bo taxed and confiscated. As a matter of fact it is not the credit of tho country, but his Government's grip on office, that tho Prime Minister is concerned about. And so when ho asks, "In whose interests was the loan floated? Was it in the interests of the Government?" we do not mind replying in the affirmative. It was entirely out of an eagerness to get money at any price in order to capture' votes and scatter largesse that the Government decided to . ask the-London market for such a huge sum. That man is rare who does not feel in his heart that our great national debt is a great national danger, and a danger that tho Prime Minister is increasing in the most reckless manner. What is the use of Sir Joseph Ward sayingi he "recognises his responsibilities" when thero is no way of making him meet in a practical way the responsibilities for the dangerous loanmadness that.ho has cultivated. How can he help us, even if he is here to help, on the day of reckoning ? He knows' that the huge inglorious .loan was not only a fiasco, but an unwarranted intensifying of the pace at which ho is piling up the national debt, -and he is ill at case.