PREMIER GOES ABROAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20236, 22 April 1929, Page 12

PREMIER GOES ABROAD.

MR. BAVIN'S HEALTH TRIP.

Maying his own expenses

[from cur own correspondent.} SYDNEY, April 12. Tho Premier of New South Wales, Mr. Bavin, who is making a trip to England to try to restore his lost health, is taking the unusual political course of paying for it o:it of his own pocket. If, aftar such a comparatively brief reign as Premier, he had decided to make tho trip, in accordance with political usage, at tho expenso of the public, and found somo trivial public excuse for doing so, ho would probably have heard about it, unfavourably, of course. But far from being lauded for his exemplary action in footing tho bill for his tour ho has now been told by une of Sydney's most influential newspapers that in going to England privately at his own expense lie is pursuing a course unbecoming the head of a Government.

One might, of course, expect other politicians to hurl a philippic at Mr. Bavin on the ground that he is setting a bad precedent in paying for his trip. As a matter of hard fact Mr. Bavin might justifiably ask the State to pay, for lie has unquestionably broken his health on the wheel of politics. At the same time he l.as far from satisfied many of the Government's followers in a session fruitful of very little outstanding legislation. Any good the Government might have done has been largely overshadowed by its taxation, and, from tho standpoint of industry, by its impost on wages sheets for the upkeep of child endowment. Mr. Bavin perhaps sometimes sighs for the lost happiness of the days when ho confined himself to his lucrative legal practice.