POLITICAL TOPICS.

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 July 1916, Page 6

POLITICAL TOPICS.

various subjects discussed

(Special Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, July 19. No one outride tne confidence of thq, -Minister was expecting the Public • Works Biatement last night, and no one, apparently, was greatly concerned about’ its contents when Mr firaser iaia it on the table of the' House in the most casual manner possible, and suggested that the * Estimates might be taken on Friday next. Even to-day no vast amount of interest in the document is being displayed, perhaps because it provides ior no juew expenditure upon roads and bridges and post office docks, but the humorists around die lobbies are pointing afjesh their old jests about the Minister's promised economies by allusions to the fact ■ that of the £1,838,201. he has at IT a. dispos l for the current’year only thg odd £2Ol is to be saved from the maw of the clamorous - elector. With party warfare suspended this s«t of thing is the legitimate sport of Mr Fraser’s many fricnos, and their banter is always accompanied by a wholehearted recognition of the charm of h-M personal qualities,* Coming into office wit «• many protestations of their determination, to keep the, expenditure down tne lie formers lifted it up in their first year from £2,340,380. to £2:548.918 in their second year they increased it I*.- ->2,760,728, and in their third, in spite t,,- .ae war, -maintained .it at £2,737,354. ■ Last year with the war still making its enormous, ae- . mands upon the public purse, they thought £2,344,944—an odd thousand or two more than the amount spent in, 1912 —reasonable compromise, and now Mr Fraser is practising the enforced virtue of spending no mord than ho lias got. ihe situation ■ certainly lends itself to the gentle art ot the humorist. ’ > * , ‘ - RAILWAY EXPENDITURE. The only really big figures in the Public Works Estimates have to-do with railway construction and additions to open lines, ' and even these arc not of their former dimensions, simply because the exigencies - of the times have’ 1 compelled the Minister th cut his coat according to his reduced ■supply of clo.th. There will be grumbling, of course, over the allocation of the money Available for this class of work, and in normal times there might bo room for ■dime imputations of party favors; but people ■acquainted with the needs of the North Auckland district and . the East Coast district will not cavil over the comparatively generous treatment they have received. North Auckland got all its vote 'expended last year, a total of £141.030 odd, .and this year-it ’ is.giv&n £92,000, while the Midland Railway»was £IO,OOO or £II,OOO 'short in its expenditure of jQB3.OQO, and this year is allotted only* , £69,000. . The East Coagt-Main Trunk ab..aorbHßd somb £123,i100 last yearV .certainly isot a penny more than was its due. and Nldr ’The ' cfirrerit year aV.’giycfa- .£102.000, - which ought to: bo fully spent. Outsiders r 'freely. admb thpt is the -must important work in-progress, in the North the present time, and if its pro

seculiou had been accompanied by a comprehensive land acquisition and settlement poacy money spent upon its completion would have been a splendid investment for the country. Most of the criticism levelled against the Government’s proposals is along these lines. Land acquisition should have preceded iaCA'ay construction, and settlement would have followed so speedily that the expenditure would have been handsomely remunerative from the first. Unhappily, the war has intervened to give the Reformers an excuse for continuing their traditional policy and to prevent the Liberals making any effective protest against its perpetuation. TEE ENIGMA OF THE HOUSE. The ways of Mr John Payne are inex plicable. One of the best ialormyl men in the House, one of the-widest read and one of the most kindly, disposed, -he seems at times to have no sense of responsibility, no idea of proportion, no regard for his own dignity or for the susceptibilities of other people. lie has not even the excuse of a hasty temper. When ho is saying his hardest things, when he is making the most outrageous charges against politicians, when he is impugning their motives or even their -personal honesty he in ports no more bitterness to his' words than he '.'-Quid if he were upbraiding a friend for failing to keep a social engigement. His outbreak last night was particularly deplorable. He had . worked himself up as best he could to a semblance of indignation against the exemption of .war debentures from income tax. He had discussed tlje question befqre in a perfectly sane and orderly fashion when supporting Mr Wilford’s protest against , an arrangement which quite a number of members regarded with, disfavor. -But apparently he imagined lie would not have done justice to his reputation as-a’daring student ot finance unless ho did something spectacular. Ho wanted to he .sure of having done what ho thought to be his whole duty. “Any Minister who would bring forward such a proposition as this,” he shouted during the course of his speech, “is one of the biggest traitors to'the British Empire.” The inevitable demand from the Speaker for the withdrawal 'of the expression brought only the retort,*“l -never saw anything so damnable in all my life,” and a prompt refusal. After this, only one course was open to Sir Joseph Ward, who has been leading Ihe House during Mr Massey’s illness,'and Mr Payne was excluded from the remainder of the sitting. It is a thousand-pities' that a member capable of doing so much excellent work should persist in methods which can appeal’no more to his own bet ter sense than they do to the sympathy of his fellow members.

SANER CRITICISM

One of the worst results of such extravagant language as Mr Payne-and one or two other members of the Labor group occasionally .employ, is that it makes less,, impetuous - members of the House disin- 1 dined to voice their own criticism of the Government’s proposals. Old hands, like ’ ■Mr Wilted, Mr .Isitt, Mr Witty, Mr . Sidey, Mr Smith, and others are not; do. termed from expressing their opinipns by 9, ‘’ C ■ ’ ■ ’ N

any fear of identifying themselves with the firebrands sitting on ihe buck benches, but younger members, whoso views might help the House very well, may think it desirable to move warily in such company. Tlie very point which Mr Payne attacked with such inexcusable warmth is quite an arguable one. There are very high authorities both here and in the Mother Sountry who strongly deprecate the exemption of war loans from the payment of income tax. But they do not imply that the people who hold a different view from themselves are in league with the capitalists and traitors to their own country. They do not even denounce the payment of income tax as “damnable.” They consider it unnecessary and inexpedient. The young politician who expressed this opinion in the House just now would run the risk of being dubbed as a disciple of the member _ for Grey Lynn, and this is a distinction which would not at the moment help him in obtaining a hearing from the people ho wished to influence or perhaps in securing a renewal of the confidence of liis constituents. Tt must bo said for Sir Joseph Ward in this connection, by the way, that he treated Mr Payne with the very greatest forbearance throughout last night’s incident and took the extreme step only wherr nothing else- could save the dignity of the House. ■’