Manawatu Daily Times The Loan Controversy

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6815, 19 January 1929, Page 8

Manawatu Daily Times The Loan Controversy

rnjjE Hon. W. Downie Stewart, Minister of Finance in the late Reform Government, with characteristic tact, attnbues some little misunderstanding concerning his loan nc S°J iatlor | 3 to t newsnaners “Sir Joseph Ward’s statement on the loan tiansac lions" he says, “has been interpreted by some newspapers to mean that I had proposed to raise five millions and to convert another ten millions of the 1928 maturing debt. This is incorrect, as Iha ma e no proposals.” Of course, it would be understood that in the midd of a -eneral election no Minister of Finance would commit the Dominion to transactions involving fifteen millions. What really happened was that Sir Joseph Ward in explaining his own commitments after his assumption of office mentioned the amounts that had been suggested to his predecessor at the Treasury. There was no attempt by either party to belittle the finance of the other. No were the newspapers at fault.

Borrowing

But while Mr. Stewart treats his successor with courtesy he is not disposed to look favouiably upon Sir Joseph Ward’s borrowing proposals. “It should be noted," he says, “that the seven millions raised by Sir Joseph Ward are lor public works. If, in addition, he mises for State Advances from six millions to eight millions, according to his election speeches, some idea of the annual borrowing can Moreover, apparently, the State Advances loans a to be borrowed locally, and not in London m the meantime Of course, the late Minister of Finance is speaking without any dcftnito knowledge of the intentions of his successor and probably will be vouchsafed little further information until the meeting of Par 1 - ment; but it is certain that on the Opposition benches he will be a very capable and useful critic. Finance in the new Parliament promises, indeed, to have many more ready exponents than it has had for many a long day.

Railway Expenditure

While Sir Joseph Ward may have an effective answer to the criticism that is being levelled against his policy of railway construction he so far has preserved a tantalising silence on the subject. Even the largo body, of business men who are prepared to give the United Party what they call a “ fair run ” look askance at the prospect of three or four millions a year being spent upon the completion of lines which already have been heavy drains upon the public purse and give little promise of being remunerative, or even selfsupporting, when they are linked-up with the rest of the railway system. Both the South Island and the North Island provide many striking instances of local lines leaning on the philanthropy of better served parts of the Dominion and Wellington people laugh at the suggestion that the completion of the South Island Trunk line will lessen the loss upon its two isolated ends.

A Burning Question

As a matter of fact Sir Joseph Ward has not yet committed himself definitely to any extravagant expenditure on railway extension and his colleagues are not likely to press him towards any indiscretion of the kind. He is quite satisfied himself, however, that the accumulating loss on the railways is largely due to the long drawn out expenditure upon their construction. Thirty years and more ago he demonstrated that the cost of some lines had been as much as doubled by building no more than a mile or two a year and leaving their completion to another generation. This sort of thing has been going on for over half a century, largely owing to the preverted instincts of parochial people, and if Sir Joseph can stii up the national conscience to a better appreciation of social seivice he will go a long way towards removing one of the gravest obstacles to the development of the Dominion