TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 51, 28 August 1926, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY

After a humed examination, a Select Committee of the House of Bepresentatives\ cannot hope to submit a report as authoritative as that which represents the results of long investigation by the qualified men who constituted the Bural Credits Commission. The Select Committee recognised its limitations by postponing investigation of the intermediate credit proposals, but- it recommended certain alterations in tho plans for extended long-term credit. The two chief alterations were that the State Advances Board should continue without change as the supervising authority, and that the limit of advances should be £5500 instead of the £7000 proposed by the Commission. To the latter proposition, no substantial objection can be offered. It is prudent not to inaugurate the system tinder too heavy a handicap. If the bonds prove popular and money is forthcoming it is always possible to raise the limit. Tho first proposal, however, is not upon exactly the same linos. If a State guarantee were suggested there would not be the same justification for a Farm Loans Board with special farmers' representation. But the farming credit is to be tho security under the scheme outlined, and there are arguments worth considering in favour of giving tho farmers a direct share in the management. • • • There is no possibility, so far as we can gee, of the representatives of bor- j rowers playing ducks and drakes with the money obtained by a bond issue, because these representatives will not be in a majority. On the other hand, a share in the management is likely to have a sobering and educative effect upon the farmers. It will be impressed upon them that they are dealing with their own security, and they will be more careful not to impair the value of that security. ' A State Advances Board as now constituted would probably manage the scheme as well as. it could be managed, but a Farm Loans Board would have a better opportunity of securing the co-operation of the farmers and winning their confidence by convincing them that extravagant land bank, ideas were not practicable. Moreover, the sharing of responsibility in this way would be a safeguard against' a renewed agitation to place the whole burden upon tlw State. For thsse reasons we hope that the Government will consider carefully before deciding against the constitution of a special Farm Loans Board. The Select Committee's recommendation regarding the Bank of New Zealand longtorm loan proposal is simple and straightforward. It favours an adjustment of taxation upon this proposed new branch of the Bank's business. This does not mean freedom from taxation, but, as we understand the recommendation, that tho farm mortgage branch should be separated from the general banking business and taxed accordingly.

Exaggerated statements in condemnation of the poorer parts ot the city have been inacle by some Labour members of Parliament. Such exaggeration serves no useful purpose, and it does not holp the movement for town improvement. It is as useless as tho complacency with which tho average citizen is wont to regard the unsightly and- insanitary quarters which are not constantly brought under his attention. The report published yesterday of Auckland activity in the demolition of condemned houses should lead Wellington citizens

to ask if as much as possible in the samo direction is being done here. There is certainly a difficulty in insisting upon demolition when the condemned houso is the or«% shelter available for tho tenants; but the Corporation might mark down certain buildings for condemnation upon the termination of existing tenancies. In this way tho rate of improvement might be accelerated

It was suggested in the Legislative Council that Hospital Boards, whoso finances are already under control, should bo exempt from the operations of the Local Government Loans Board Bill. The Government will be wiso if it refuses to countonance such a proposal for exemption. At present the hospital finance is freed from direct control by tha ratepayers. Hospital Boards may borrow without taking loan polls. It is tho business of the Health Department to supervise the hospital expenditure, but this supervision is not on exactly the samo lines as that proposed in the new measure. Moreover, if a beginning is made with exemptions there is no telling where it will end. Borough Councils may plead that their drainage, sewage, and water-supply schemes should also be subject to no restraint. The Local Government Loans Board may bo trusted to take all such facts into consideration and to hold the balance fairly in its control of borrowing operations.