NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 75, 21 December 1928, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

It is interesting to learn that the Prime Minister has already arranged to borrow two millions on the local market for Advances to Settlers and Workers. Most people having any contact with financial circles have recognised for some time past that there is plenty of money available for investment in New Zealand just now. Whether it is wise for the Government to step in and absorb n may be open to question. Apparently, however, Sir Joseph Ward, quite naturally, being in haste to carry out his promise to provi-e advances had no alternative. It can be taken for granted that the money will not be available in any quantity, if at all, at the low rates promised during the election campaign. There is anothe. matter which is worth noting in connection with the interesting statement published by the Prime Minister yesterday. That is tn connection with the borrowing plans of the new Government. Sir Joseph Ward emphasises that it is not proposed to borrow any more each year than was borrowed on an average during the past three years. Many fairy castles will crash to earth as the result of this definite pronouncement. * ♦ ♦ * A short time ago we heard not a little about the abolition of wars of aggression. It was truly an ideal of which all could approve, for did not such a thing tend to make war impossible. Naturally, however, a country could not be expected to submit meekly to invasion, so wars of defence were permitted. 1 herein lay the weakness of the ideal. If Paraguay and Bolivia have done nothing else they have shown how futile it is to differentiate between wars of aggression and wars of defence. We may smile at , their childishness, but what they can do other nations can do, too You hit me first—no I didn’t—yes, you did” is the signal in many a school to form an excited ring for the ensuing battle. We have to-day concrete proof that this childish method of finding an excuse to fight is not confined to the schoolboy. * * * * One thing is very clear from the statement made yesterday by Sir Joseph Ward on the financial question which has arisen in London, and that is that the financial credit of the Dominion is in no way affected. The Prime Minister was quite candid on the point. “He wished,” he said, “In the first plac" to state definitely that these proposals, whichever way they might have been decided by the previous Government or by himself, in no way reflected upon the high credit of the country br its powers to borrow in London or to keep its engagements.” This frank and outspoken explanation is in wholesome contrast to the contemptible suggestions and even definite assertions that have been circulated by some supporters of the Government. The Stratford Post, for instance, which is the champion of Mr. Masters, recently published a scare-headed article, allegedly from its Wellington correspondent, in which it was stated that Sir Joseph Ward had “made it clear that all was not well between New Zealand and the financiers in London.” It added: “Both Mr. Coates and Mr. Stewarr were cognisant of the unsatisfactory position long before the elections, and there could be no justification for their stating and stating repeatedly that New Zealand stood well in the money markets of the world.” This gross misrepresentation of the facts of the position by the Stratford paper is now exposed by the statement published by Sir Joseph Ward. So far from the credit of the country being in doubt when the Coates Government left office, there is not the least doubt that the credit of New Zealand never stood hiffher.