Manawatu Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 21st MAY, 1875] THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1921. CANDID CRITICISM.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 1969, 10 November 1921, Page 4

Manawatu Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 21st MAY, 1875] THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1921. CANDID CRITICISM.

It is fortunate for New Zealand that it possesses several newspapers that have tne courage to place the interests of the country before those of party. One of these is the “N.£. Herald,” which has long been regarded as the mouthpiece of the Reform Party in the Auckland province. The •‘Herald” has for some time past been impressing upon the Government the imperative necessity for curtailing the expenditure upon the public services and reducing taxation. As an evidence of its sincerity in this connection, our northern contemporary thinks the Financial Statement is profoundly disappointing. rightly says that sound finance demands a balanced budget; to incur a deficit is to play with ruin. The country cannot afford a deficit; it cannot afford to find a revenue of £28,000,000; it cannot afford to spend £29,260,367; it cannot afford the present scale’ of taxation; it cannot afford to maintain in ohice a Government which piays with its financial siabhity in this lighthearted fashion. Mr Massey has made several forecasts of economy. Some of them have proved to be exaggerations; others have proved chimerical; others have yet to be put into operation. The country has no detailed knowledge of the savings that are being effected. It has a right to know, and the Financial Statement is the proper vehicle for the information. There never was a time when a precise and explicit statement was more urgently demanded; there never was a document so vague and worthless. The Statement is itself an affront to economy. Its forty-one printed pages, consisting for the roost part of departmental reports which are published separately, might witli advantage have been reduced to ten. For wealth of words and poverty of Information the Statement is monumental. Its inconsequential optimism would not deceive a child. Unless supported by evidence of economy, which is entirely lacking, such optimism is a vice. Mr Massey speaks of revising “the whole system of taxation” and giving belief “where it is most urgently required,” but his first duty is to make ends meet. Until he does this, taxation reduction can have nothing but an upward tendency. The Government is beginning to economise’ —of this there is fortunately internal, if hidden, evidence in the Budget—but it is at least a year too late, and it is proceeding at far too leisurely a pace. If Mr Massey really supposes it will take two years to give effect to all his proposals for retrenchment, then he had better invite the assistance of a committee of business men to carry them through this session.