BAD POLICY.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 279, 4 December 1901, Page 2

BAD POLICY.

Deny it or attempt to explain it as they may, there can now be no question that the Government are severely retrenching in the matter of public works expenditure. Workmen are being discharged by the hundred from undertakings that should be prosecuted with ail vigor during the summer months. It is no doubt a wise thing to retrench at a time when there is a tendency for money to become scarce, and when the scarcity actually exists there is a necessity to keep a close check on expenditure. But it is bad policy, and unwise in every respect, for retrenchment to take the form of a curtailment of public works, at a time oi the year, too, when that work can be done to the best advantage. It is but a few weeks ago that members of Parliament showed great alacrity ■in each grabbing £6O from the Treasury. There was no cry then of scarcity oi funds ; there was a lavish hand in taking that for whi cli no authority had been obtained from the people. And so soun wo find that the penalty has to be borne by Lie workmen, and in turn by the colony as a whole, for the shortening of hands means that works that should soon be made reproductive are left for months, perhaps for years, in an unfinished state. No wise business man, dealing with his own affairs, would act in this way. Ii he had to retrench he would first cut down luxuries, and not use the pruning knife to injure his business. In this country, ttc are told, flic working man is all-powerful , in many ways it has been shown that it is true, but if he silently submits to the conduct oi members in appropriating £fiO each, while works throughout 0 the country are being curtailed for want oi funds, jt will at least be a matter for surprise.