THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1936

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22352, 25 February 1936, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1936

PENDING'LEGISLATION ♦ Mb. Savage's outline of the business to be brought before the first session of the new Parliament next month is important as showing the wide scope of the Labour Government's initial legislative programme. Measures are foreshadowed affecting employers and workers, the unemployed, the administration of the railways and public works, the mortgagee and mortgagor, farmers and farm labour, financial policy and oldage pensioners. The Prime Minister discusses most of these proposals in broad and general terms, but vouchsafes remarkably few details. The public will give Mr. Savage credit for good intentions, their chief interest now being the methods by which he proposes to give them the substance of reality. Apparently, however, they will have to wait for information as to the practical working of the Government's plans until Parliament meets and Ministers begin to bring down their bills. Mr. Savage has already stated that such deference would be paid to the rights of members, acquainting them first with the legislative proposals they will be asked to enact. Hence the public will look in vain for more than an outline in the Prime Minister's statement. The only danger is that people may attempt to fill in the details for themselves, raising expectations or apprehensions that may not be justified by the event. In the meanwhile, therefore, it will be as well to wait and see: to reserve judgment for the actual proposals rather than raise needless pother about what may be intended. One of the points on which the Prime Minister is definite, emphasises the unwisdom of rushing to conclusions. People had quickly realised that the carrying out of the Government's programme would largely turn on finance and everybody began to ask where the money was to be found. Some saw the answer in a compulsory loan, an idea that at once had wide circulation. Mr. Savage has effectively laid that canard. He says a compulsory loan has not even been discussed, a statement that 'should be reassuring to any who gave credence to rumours. Although this idea is disposed of, Mr. Savage preserves a discreet silence as to how the central problem of ways and means is to be solved. That a solution is in process of being worked out is made clear, however. Mr. Savage states that the Minister of Finance has been going into this matter for some time, and, when Parliament met, Mr. Nash would "be in a position largely to overcome the money problem." Different people, according as they are pessimists or optimists, will interpret this 'statement differently. It will depend on the meaning they give to the word "largely." At least it is clear that Mr. Savage claims that his Minister will be able to meet most of the financial demands made by a policy that is bound to prove expensive in application. If the claim turns out to be substantial, Mr. Nash will have succeeded in three months in answering a monetary riddle which has baffled the financiers and statesmen of every country ever since, ages ago, the search for the Philosopher's Stone began. If the public must wait for an answer until Parliament opens, Mr. Savage leaves no doubt that there will be need to fortify the Treasury against the incursions of other Ministers. It is already apparent that Mr. Semple is to direct a great spending programme on works. One of the first acts of the Government will be to clear the way by restoring to itself unfettered powers to authorise the construction of nailways. Politics and not economics are once again to bo decisive. Political control of the working railways is also to be restored. Both these methods of direction have cost the country dear in the past. Amendments to the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act are also promised early in the session. Mr. Savage is vague as to their tenor, except that legislation providing for the shortening of working hours will be introduced. Here, again, much will depend on the method. The general aim, against which none can demur, is to improve labour conditions and increase employment. The difficulty will be so to contrive as not to produce the opposite result. The proposed increases in old-age pensions will not bo grudged, provided the money is found without placing burdens on other shoulders. It should be remembered in this connection that the full pre-depression rate of pensions has been restored, so that, owing to the fall in prices, pensioners are better off than in 1929. A pood many others are not so fortunate. As fo*" the overhaul of mortgage legislation promised by the Prime Minister, coupled with revaluations and guaranteed prices, discussion must await the definition given by the actual proposals. Mr. Savage talks of "providing for the average man working under average conditions," a phrase that is meaningless until the Government explains how the average is to be determined. With this, as with the other items of policy, the public can at present do no more than wait and see. I