The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1924. AMATEUR FINANCE.

Evening Star, Issue 18627, 7 May 1924, Page 6

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 1924. AMATEUR FINANCE.

The four Christchurch Labor M.P.s arc continuing their publicity campaign

which constituted one of the side-shows of the recent railway strike. The object appears to bo a complex of several brilliant ideas—to discredit tho present Government, to keep the Labor Party prominently before the public eye as desirable and speedy occupants of the Treasury benches, to spread disaffection in the Public Service with an eye to a big block vote for Labor at tho next elections ns soon as these can bo forced on, and to obtain useful practice preparatory to the time when they themselves shall bo Ministers of the Crown. Yesterday’s manifesto—-for such was really tho nature of the letter they sent to Mr Massey—had as its text the Public Accounts for the. year 1923-24, the probable surplus, and the application of the latter. Whether it is Mr Howard, Air Armstrong, Mr Sullivan, or Air APCombs who holds in his peeked; tho portfolio of Minister of Finance ini the Labor Cabinet of tho future has not -been disclosed. The joint effort precludes tho credulous from concentrating on any one of tho four ns tho wizard of finance to whom the opportunity of administering New ZealandV. linances cannot come too soon in, the best interests of tho country, just as it shields any single one of them from tho criticisms of those in whom tho now finance lino engendered a deep fooling of mistrust.

There l is, however, one notable omission on which the, framers of the manifesto must be sincerely congratulated. There is no mention of the accumulated surpluses of the Massey regime. In past financial criticisms emanating from Labor these accumulated surpluses were comparable to the references to King Charles'; head in the conversation of Mr Dick. Now, instead of delving in the past, then is an exclusive concentration on the immediate present. But as the surplus for the financial year ended about five week; ago has not yet been announced, the four enthusiasts on finance have done some amateur calculation,, and the answer to the sum they set themselves is that tin year’s surplus is “in the region o! £3,000,000.” In replying to them Mi Massey lias risen sufficiently to tho bail to put a cross instead of a “ correct ’’ mark on their slate. The answer to their sum is wrong. Mr Massey did not gratify them by furnishing the right answer beyond saying that the surplus is “ well under £2.030.000.” That at once destroy;, much of the value of the confident hist met ions as to the best- way to apply tin surplus. The schoolboy who has planned certain expenditure in advance on the expectation of getting a. present of half a crown has to cut out certain itenir when the amount turns out to bo only oiglitcenpenco. However?, for what bene lit there accrues from getting a rough estimate of tho surplus perhaps a week earlier than tho exact amount is an nonneed the Christchurch members art deserving of the country’s gratitude. In replying to tho exceedingly critical communication on his administration of the Treasury, Mr Massey mixes goodnatured tolerance with a little instruction of an elementary nature and enunciation of some common-sense principles. With ingenious prevision ns regards the possibility of their calculations being wrong tho Christchurch critics protest against having, as members of Parliament, “t< make estimates where t2i© actual figure, relating to the public finances should hi available.” In the political year there b usually no more important, speech delivered outside of Parliament than that in which the head of the Government or the Minister of Finance—in. this case the same person—announces tho financial result of tho year’s working. Presumably Mr Massey is now only awaiting the finish of the audit of the Treasury's statement before announcing the figures at a public meeting. It is a time-honored function, and there is as yet no ground for complaint on the score of delay if precedent is any guide. It in true that in Britain, where the financial year ends on tho same date as hero, similar figures have already been published; but in her case there is the urge of Parliament in session impatient to get to work on the Budget. Possibly it would be better if it were customary for the New Zealand Parliament to be ranch less leisurely in meeting, and for our Governments to be more prompt in bringing down their Budgets once Parliament has met. Tho long interval between the end of the financial year and the appearance of the Financial Statement in the House of Representatives is not a good feature of our political system. There is ono sentence in Mr Massey’s reply which should rivet attention: “t wish I could make the Labor memibem for Christchurch understand that all taxaJtiga -k -fit JSULgft M % ~f ■ i. m--* 1 .t:.... ,i ■ 1 ... '

wage-earners more seriously than any other section of the community." Towards the members of the Public Service the attitude of the Labor members .may bo summed up in a well-worn extract from Dickons: “Codlin’s your friend, not Short.’’ Is Labor truly representative of the workers as a whole or of the members of the Puiblio Service exclusively? It appears to ns that Air (Mtissey is showing u,p aa a greatly more far-seeing guardian of the interests of Labor as a. whole than are the Christchurch Labor members. The kernel of the present dissatisfaction over the wages (question is the short distance wages go in making purchases of food, clothing, and shelter. Mr Massey has made a trial of heavy taxation, and his experience of where its ultimate incidence ■was worst felt makes him chary of repeating an experiment of making work scarcer and commodities dearer.

Lastly, in our opinion, Mr Massey is actually a truer friend to the Pubic tiervice than some of their much more vociferous political champions. -Tho best friend of the occupant of any billet ; s hardly the man who advocates methods which would undermine the financial stability of the concern from which the employee draws his wages.