THE ECONOMY AXE

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 154, 25 March 1922, Page 3

THE ECONOMY AXE

NEW ZEALAND’S EXAMPLE LONDON PAPER’S COMMENT New Zealand is a long way away, but it is not alone distance which lends enchantment to the view we are afforded of Government economy as practised in that -far Dominion (says the “Daily Sketch,” London, under date January 31). . . Thev seem to have a less gradual way of doing things at the Antipodes, than we have in this country. Die Now'Zealand economy axe descended with praisworthy suddenness, lopping off from 7 to 10 per cent, of the salaries of the more highly-paid Government officials, carving a portion from the cost-of-living bonus, reducing the size of the education vote and—hojd your breath!—removing 10 per cent, from the "honoraria of members of Pl Mr an Massey, the New Zealand Premier faced the position fairly ana squarely, and it is notable that the mos strenuous opposition to hls , pr ° came from the Labour members, who argued that the Government, of reducing its expenditure should increase the taxation on higher incomes #ll l d t seems to be a fixed delusion with a number of Labour politicians that capital is an inexhaustible weß from which cash can be drawn smrpie expedient of lowering « bpWe *?. Xj Massev knows better than this a was able to see that <o "hich many Labour members are blind— namely, that excessive demands upon oapital react upon the working clnby interfering with industry, stifling new enterprises and producing unemploymThe fact that the New Zealand Government has reduced | he . grant is very significant, for it has alwavs been an aim of the Dominion S to maintain one of the finest; edication systems m the ¥,or , ; 1 sey however, has faced hard facts and S realised that the efficiency of an education svstem need not bfe measured by the amount ot money It° StB is tp be hoped that this example from overseas cause ’the Government to bring the Geddes economv axe from its plac of concealment and nroee-d to mnW proper use of it. ,We don’t want the implement to remain hidden from si.ht until'that distant for^ ed Macaulay, when VIFI ' hrokZealand will take bis stand on a bmlc In arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul’s..