LOANS TO LOCAL BODIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16666, 26 September 1914, Page 8

LOANS TO LOCAL BODIES.

Two years ago quite a stir was raised in the House of Representatives and throughout the country by some remarks that fell from the lips of the Hon James Allen. The particular anxiety of the Minister of Finance seemed to be that Mr G. W. Russell should be suitably humiliated, and with him -the Liberal Party, because he had dared to urge greater activity on the part of the Government in providing local bodies with loans through the Advances Department. In effect, the reply made by the Minister v. f as that what was asked was impossible in consequence of the depletion of tho available resources by tho Ward Government at the time of the last election. A good many people will remember the incident. Tho cry of " spoils ” was taken up by Reform newspapers with gusto and alacrity. It was declared that tho country would ne-echo “ with surprise and indignation” the '‘crushing indictment” and the “proofs” of how shamelessly the Advances Department had been used for election purposes. It was urged that tho spirit of the Act had been violently transgressed for party purposes and that the Department had been converted into an electioneering agency for the Liberals, being made to allocate its loans in su:h a way as to “sweeten” certain electorates. One anti-Liberal organ fervently hoped that the matter would be brought up in the House again and further investigated. It was. iVt its next sitting the House had before it an indignant repudiation by the Advances Board of the insinuation that it had granted loans under political influence, and an exhaustive inquiry that followed showed the Board and the Ward Government to have been right and their critics wrong. We mention this matter just now because wo notice that while the Spreydon borough, which happens to be represented in Parliament by a Liberal, cannot secure a drainage loan, and the Mayor of Spreydon says the work is absolutely necessary, a loan of £12,000 has just been granted to the West Taieri Drainage Board, whose district at the last election voted Reform. Now, wo are not going to say that political influence has been used to lend money for expenditure in a locality where the Hon James Allen will be asking for votes in a few weeks. It may be that the Taieri drainage work is more urgent than tho Spreydon, and in any case the Advances Board, as we have shown, vindicated its character two years ago. But it is not difficult to imagine the view that would have been taken by our Reform friends if, on tho eve of an election ls we are, the Liberals had been in power and these loan authorisations had been reversed.