KEEPING TO THE ROAD

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 49, 27 February 1935, Page 8

KEEPING TO THE ROAD

"Is the Government to be battered about and dragged up this road and down that alley by every opinion that- is expressed in the country?" This was part of the reply made by Mr. Coates to the critipism that the Mortgage Corporation Bill did not give satisfaction either to the financial and commercial sections or to the farmers. In effect it was a declaration of the Government's determination to follow its own course. In some circumstances such a determination could be admired. A Government which has no strength' of purpose and is pushed hither and thither cannot give a lead to the community. Mr. Coales's critics will admit that it is not a failing with which.he may be charged. But reasonable firmness is not to be confused with unreasoning stubbornness. Where the Government is undertaking a new and vast experi-. ment it is not weakness but prudence to heed the advice of those who have experience. This the Minister has so far refused to do. The opinions offeredl by the conference of trading banks, Chambers of Commerce, stock and station agents, Law Society, and loan organisations were- based upon a long and varied experience in finance and investment. They pointed to very grave dangers attending the course proposed by the Government, and; the Minister could have accepted the advice without being guilty of vacillation. ' It is one thing to refuse to "be dragged up this road and down that alley"; it is quite another to drive at fullspeed past all the warning signs shown by those who know the dangers of the road.