The Hawera Star. SATURDAY AUGUST 11, 1928. MINISTERS AND THEIR CRITICS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 11 August 1928, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

SATURDAY AUGUST 11, 1928. MINISTERS AND THEIR CRITICS.

Delivered every evening: by 6 o'oloek In Hnwera. Manaia. Normanby. Okaiswa. Eltham. Mangat.oki. Kaponga. Alton, Rnrleyville Patea. Waverlev, Mo. oia. Wnakamara. Ohangal, Meremere. Fraaei Bead, and Ararata.

While there watt much missing from t he Minister's Financial Statement which the public would like (to see there a decreasing public debt and a reduction of taxation, for instance —Mr Dowrnie Stewart is to be commended upon his businesslike, presentation of the facts as they exist. It its not oin invariable experience to find a Minister of Finance so 1 concise and businesslike in placing the Budget before, Parliament, particularly ini the session preceding a 'general election. The. Minister displayed a candour in his statement which a> lesser politician might not have considered expedient to express at the moment, especially when it followed upon a definite declaration against anv reduction of taxation on the grounds- -of the impracticability and insecurity of such action, but Air Downie Stewart has not earned the reSipeet of even those who disagree with him politically by .the employment of showy methods calculated to win popularity while they ignore the public good. He went to some pains' to show that the five and a half million increase in the public debt was really aln improvement upon the position shown at the tend of each of the two preceding financial years, as he. was perfectly entitled to do, for though the actual position remains that the debt hats been increased by that amount, there has certainly been a slowing up of the rate of annual increase; the previous year seven millions were added, and in 1925-26 fresh debt to the amount of eleven millions was incurred. Though lie added a hopeful statement in regard to the better times ahead of the Dominion, 'lie made it plain that no. great strides in the matter of tax reduction could bo anticipated immediately. Tn those post-war days the lot of a Minister of Finance is not a; happy one, and it con be taken for granted that; Mr Downie Stewart will be, taken to itaistc in some quarters because he does not. hold out any hope of immediate relief of some measure of the burden of taxation. If, however, the taxpayer refuses to allow Ms natural disappointment at the absence of any cheering promise in this regard to cloud) his reason and judgment, he will realise that the. country is fortunate an having as Minister a .politician Who faces facts, pleasant and unpleasant, squarely. The Hion. Air Downie Stewart does not utilise, the opportunity presented! by the reading of his Financial Statement to sermonise on the necessity for economy, but he does show very clearly that the .rules which apply to the financial problems of the individual apply also to the problems of the country; in short, the tells the public definitely that .the Government cannot pay before it has the money, and' that it takes a full pound sterling to meet a debt of £l. Some inkling of the problem which faces the Minister is given when lie points out the cost of social services, which absorb one-third of the annual revenue received through taxation, and then asks if the public would have the Government do less than, it is doing in such matters as health, hospitals', pensions and education. The answer is obvious; the public does hat want the Government to do less- —in fact, it is constantly asking that more bo done, though it is 'true that the section which risks for more money for education, is ! hot the same which urges increased pensions, and neither of those two sections is perhaps represented on the deputations which ask for larger grants for the after-care of feeble-minded criminals. Air Downie Stewart is 'emphatic, though not, unreasonably so,, in declaring that it is not. the extravagance of the Government that is at fault, but the almost universal belief that the resources of the Treasury'-a.ro bottomless. He merely takes the attitude. of the business man when lie says that, to be sound, expenditure on such item's as social service, which show no immediate cash return, should follow, not precede, a revival of national prosperity. But for mil their urging of “.more business in Government, ’’ the electors do not always appreciate the application, of business principles by their politicians. Cabinet Arinisters must often feel tempted to “let therm selves go ’ ’ in reply to eriticis, as the Kt. Hon. St-vnJ'ey Brace, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth, did recently, as reported elsewhere on this page. Air Bruce did .something that is “not done” in politics when ho questioned

his hearers ’• knowledge of what they were, talking about, and) bo fa-r we have heard nothing that suggests he committed .political suicide by 'his action; indeed, everybody appears to 'have benefited by his refreshing ferocity. It its cert:tin Mr Bruce did.