ON THE WRONG TRAIL

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 257, 27 July 1936, Page 10

ON THE WRONG TRAIL

Professor’s Reply to Prime Minister GOVERNMENT POLICY “TOO SIMPLE’’ By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland. July 25. Dr. W. B. Munro, former Professor of History and Government at Harvard University, lay back in bed on the Monterey this morning, adjusted his horn-rimmed glasses, and smiled as he read the reply of the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, to the criticism of the Labour Government's policy offered by Professor Munro when passing through to Australia. “I admire the forthrightness of Mr. Savage,” said Professor Munro. “There is nothing pussyfooting about the man. It does one's heart good to see a statesman who will go straight ahead with a policy as he is doing. The only criticism one can offer is that he is on the wrong trail and will come a cropper. The Government of New Zealand has run amuck in attempting to do an impossible thing, make the poor rich by making the rich poor, redistribute wealth by a process of law. It can’t be done, as has been proved when tried elsewhere. Mr. Savage’s policy is too simple. If it could be successful it would have been carried out years ago in other countries. Its chances in this small country are better than in any other country in the world, but still it is just a matter of degree. “The worst feature is a misty sense of credit obligation, as shown in the proposal a short time ago to reorganise the New Zealand debt in England. It was unworthy of a British Dominion.”

Professor Munro said he was born and educated in Canada and therefore took a natural interest in New Zealand and Australian politics. “We'll leave it to the future to judge,” was his final comment.