HELPFUL ADMISSIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 119, 22 May 1931, Page 8

HELPFUL ADMISSIONS

Though it appears to be made in a grudging way, we can welcome Mr. Coatcs's statement that he "did not lay all the present troubles of the country at the door of the Government." The Leader of the Opposition no doubt retains memories of the days when >he was Prime Minister in a Government which had an overwhelming majority and when that Government was fiercely, attacked, principally by Labour; because it could not immediately change economic laws by Act of Parliament. He realises- that the present Government is in a similar position; but we doubt if he recognises how much worse than- the difficulties which he faced are the conditions which confront" Mr. Forbes. We can agree with him that the United Government was elected, on a, policy impossible of execution and. that it did not , immediately realise this. At the time, we declared that the,loan policy submitted by Sir Joseph Ward could not be safely carried out, and we supported the loan-tapering Avhich Mr. Downie Stewart advised and partly put into operation. Mr. Coates, however, supplies-facts which should lead him to a more ready recognition of the Government's difficulties. In 1925-26, he shows, loans totalled £11,000,000, and in the last eight months of Reform Government £5,000,000 was borrowed. It took three years to reduce the scale of borrowing. The United Government, full of optimism, increased the rate again, but has since reduced it—as admitted some months ago by the ex-Minister of Finance, Mr. Stewart. Can Mr. Coates be sternly critical of a Government for not learning more speedily the lesson which it required all the insistence of Mr. Stewart to instil into the mind of Reform? The Leader of the Opposition admits that the borrowing policy has now been changed, and he says that "the Government's hesitancy in going on with its original policy was an advantage to the Dominion and a credit to itself." It is more than that. It is as sound a reason as can be adduced for extending to a Government which has had the courage to submit a new policy the fullest measure of cooperation. Mr. Forbes has changed extravagance which exceeded that of Reform for economy which is more drastic and searching than ever Reforni was called upon lo practise. It is true that Mr. Coates now offers co-operation, and his latest statement tends to soften the blow of his rejection of the National Party offer. Tho Eeform Party reserved tho right of criticism, but tho Government need have no great alarm that co-operation would not bo forthcoming:. . The co-operation extended last session and now promised is much better than an attempt to make unlimited political capital out of the country's difficulties; but Mr. Coates does not see that even co-operation which falls short of complete association must make more difficult the operation of a sound policy and may even precipitate disaster.