POLITICAL RAINMAKERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 130, 4 June 1938, Page 8

POLITICAL RAINMAKERS

When prosperity marches in at ihe front door it is careless as to who the janitor is. Prosperity was already returning in 1935 when ihe New Zealand elections changed the janitor, and a Labour Government was empowered to receive the rising revenue; from which coincidence there has been some attempt to suggest political cause and effect. Mr. Fraser, however, has lately disclaimed that Labour rules London prices, though claiming that their effect in New Zealand, for good or had, has been powerfully influenced by Labour spending as against Nationalist economy. The Labour claim that Labour policy in 1929-35 would have minimised the hardships of the depression has its corollary in another Labour boast that New Zealand can be insulated against a return of depression conditions; the claim with regard to the 1929-35 period can never be put to the test, but its corollary can be, and may be. In the meantime it is safer to believe that prosperity makes Governments than to believe that Governments make prosperity. The prosperity that the Governments do not make does not always arise through London prices. Sometimes it comes from the skies. A week ago, for instance, Sydney papers carried the joyful heading "The Drought Breaks." Rains fell which are described as worth their weight in gold. They fell in spite of the fact that in New South Wales there is a non-Labour Government. No attempt to put a party label on them has yet been made, and if anyone promised to insulate Australia against drought, Australians would remain politely sceptical.