THE H.B. TRIBUNE WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 1928 OUR FINANCE MINISTER

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 201, 8 August 1928, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 1928 OUR FINANCE MINISTER

JN the rather forlorn hope that they will be widely and diligently read, we to-day publish copious extracts from the statement as to the position of our national finance which was last night laid before the House of Representatives by our Minister of Finance, the Hon. W. Downie Stewart. It is one of the gravest disadvantages under which not only he, but other Ministers also, of whatever “colour” they may be, have to labour that the community at large lends a much more attentive ear to the complaints laid against th«m than Jo the re-

plies they are able to give. In the present instance the Minister has been attacked from many quarters, some fairly well qualified to speak on such subjects, but most hopelessly at sea upon questions of such scope and magnitude and wholly irresponsible, and a big proportion of them speaking with partisan political purposes in view. These accusations, with the queer disposition that pervades us to rejoice in finding the Government in the wrong, are generally swallowed whole and avidly. But when it comes to the ministerial answers, which may be completely effective, they are very often merely glanced at, without any intelligent effort to grasp both sides of the questions in issue. This may arise, partly at least, from the fact that in most cases the “defence” has necessarily to be a good deal longer than 11 indictment”—a mighty worn in the mouths of the Opposition—and the present generation has little time to give to lengthy explanations. So it is, we may well fear, that with quite un-British unfairness the Minister’s side of the discussion but rarely commands the general attention that it should.

So far as the statement now under discussion is concerned it is, like all that have come from the same source, entirely frank and lucid. We have probably never had a Minister of Finance who has displayed as great political honesty as the one who now holds the portfolio, and this quality speaks in every line of his statement. He tells a plain, unvarnished tale that almost anyone ian read and understand, using plain language and plain figures. If plain folk will only, in a spirit of fairness if nothing else, allow them to sink in, they will get some fair notion of the difficulties with which he has to contend and of the impracticable nature of many of the panaceas his irresponsible assailants have to ''opose. They will also see that, though necessarily as yet slow and gradual, the process of amelioration is, under the Minister’s capable and cautious guidance, working surely towards a definite end. Mr. Downie Stuart, unlike many who have held his office, is labouring not for to-day or to-morrow alone —though he is giving such heed as he may to present exigencies—but for the years and, it may be said, for the generations to come. His is the statesmanlike view that pays regard for the welfare of the country’s future, both immediate and more remote, and is not diverted to the one hand or the other seeking for the empty laudations of those whose vision cannot or will not look beyond relief for their present troubles. He realises quite as well as even those who are beset by them what those troubles are. But what he is out to secure is a permanent cure, not a mere temporary palliative. To this end, too, as he himself says, he is always open to receive outside suggestions so long as those putting them forward can show him how, under the circumstances of the time, they may be put into practice without creating a disturbance that would entirely nega tive their apparent value. No claim is made to wizardry, but merely an honest facing of stern realities and an equally honest search for the best way to meet them in the interests of the community’s future.