Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, MARCH 2nd., 1937. MR. SAVAGE ON TOUR.

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 March 1937, Page 6

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, MARCH 2nd., 1937. MR. SAVAGE ON TOUR.

w ith the .South Island portion of his tour of New Zealand brought to a conclusion, the Prime Minister is, according to his remarks to an interviewer, in a particularly satisfied frame of mind, and this will probably find a repetition in the North Island. Mr. Savage has made special mention of. the cordial welcomes extended to himself and his Ministerial colleague, Mr. Armstrong, during the 1 3ourse of the tour. “It is difficult,” he said, “to find language to describe the warmth and genuine ‘ cordiality with which we were i met To me, it represented :

the endorsement of what the Government is doing, and what it proposes to do for the people.” There is no doubt that the Prime Minister was received cordially, but that is not an honour extended solely because he is Hie leader of a Labour Government. Any Prime Minister, whatever his political colour, is entitled to such courtesy, and it is ensured by tin' traditional respect of New Zealanders for those who fill Ministerial positions. Irrespective of politics, the people generally arc willing to show their appreciation of sincerity, and it is doubtful whether anyone would go so far as fo accuse Air. Savage of insincerity. On the contrary, ho Jias sliown liimself to be much more an

idealist than have some of his colleagues, and he must be given full credit for his zealous advocacy of those ideals. It does not neces-

sarily follow, however, that, the courtesy extended to Mr. Savage during his four constitutes an endorsement of what the Government is doing, and proposes to do. In assuming this —if he really did make such an assumption, and was not speaking mainly as a politician —the Prime Minister was unduly optimistic. “Whatever feeling existed against us,” he said., “and there was some slight feeling, seems to have disappeared.” The warmth of the welcomes extended to himself and his colleagues has apparently caused Mr. Savage to become so self-satisfied that he is, politically speaking, “putting the glass to his sightless eye.” He affects to ignore the undoubted fact that the prices of most of the commodities in daily use by New Zealanders are steadily rising, that the 40hour week, in operation, has proved to be anything but the complete success predicted, that income-tax has gone up tremendously, and is pressing much too heavily upon those with “middleclass” incomes, and that things in New Zealand, generally, are far from satisfactory. Moreover, there is no indication of any immediate improvement. It is easy for Labour Ministers to make generous promises, but another thing altogether to realise those promises. For instance, Mr. Armstrong is reported to have said, in the course of his speech at a Labour gathering in Ashburton, that if a man could not pay rent for a decent house on £4 per’ week, the Government would see that he received £6 per week, so that he could pay it! Where the extra money was coming from, Mr. Armstrong apparently omitted to explain. If it is a case of “robbing Peter to pay Paul/’ the Government will not. be popular with Peter, and his resentment will be apt to find definite expression at the ballotbox. The Labour Government is being given a fair chance to put its theories into practice, but many of the. results, so far, have been disappointing.