THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 1922. VOTE CATCHING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18463, 26 January 1922, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 1922. VOTE CATCHING.

It will be by electors that, as this is general election year, the season has arrived when political angling has become the chief sport of the opportunists in politics. " The Public Expenditure Adjustment Bill,, which represents the Government's effort to save the finances of the dominion from complete demoralisation, has provided the official , Labour Party with 4 an opportunity to setter some political]bait in the hope of securing a satisfactory catch, at the polls. „ The proposals iof the Minister of Finance represent the absolute minimum of retrenchment that is possible, and, upon a calm consideration of the whole positipn, at least a majority of the public servants themselves should come to the conclusion that had the reins of government been in less responsible hands their case might have been infinitely worse than it is. The best friends of the public servants are not those who, having no official responsibility, declare that retrenchment and economy are quite unnecessary. The real friends of the country, and even of the public servants themselves, are those who tell the truth respecting the financial situation, and who insist that a reasonable effort shall be made to remedy a state of affairs of which a continuance would end onlv in disaster. The electors are generally versed in the facts regarding tine abnormal growth of departmental expenditure and the increase in the personnel of the servico within recent years. They tynow from practical experience that charges have been substantially increased during the same period, and they are aware also that, despite this, the public revenue is declining. Any Government in office which refused or neglected to meet such a situation' boldly in the only possible wav — by reducing expenditure—would

be unfit for office. Every member of the House of Representatives, with the exception of those constituting the official Labour Party, has realised the need of the times, and is prepared, however reluctantly, to attempt to stem a financial drift which would become exceedingly dangerous to the whole community if it were not resolutely checked. The Labour Party proposes an alternative—increased taxation, —tut the effect of this would undoubtedly be to embarrass every industry in the dominion and to increase the ranks of the unemployed./ It could not even >save the public servants, for the reason that, industry having been crippled, the receipts from the public services would decline, and wholesale dismissals would then bo. imperative in place of the present retrenchment proposals. The taxation effort would even defeat itself because industry, the ultimate source of all taxation, would become -stagnant. In plain truth the dominion is fortunate that the party which would apply such a dangerous remedy has not been called in to prescribe. Every producer and every business man know that what is required to 'stimulate industry is a reduction of taxation, and that if this could be immediately accomplished its effect would be far-reaching. Unfortunately a substantial reduction in taxation cannot be made in existing circdmstances. It is only by a reduction of expenditure and' by the practice of rigorous economy that a sound finance can be maintained. The utter fallaciousness of the Labour Party’s remedy is indicated in the fact that many taxpayers are experiencing great difficulty in meeting the demands of the present scheme of taxation. In these circumstances the attempt of. the Labour Party to prove that Cdiilin and not’ Short tis, the only true friend of the public servants possesses quite a serious interest for the whole electorate, 1 for in its desire to secure the votes of the public servants the party would? imperil the stability of the State itself. “Don’t forget those friends of yours—the six men in the HoUse of Representatives,” exhorted one of the speakers at the public meeting of civil servants in Wellington Jast week; Even good intentions in state-craft do not compensate for muddle-headed methods, and only a party immersed in the bog of classconssciousness and in r dire need of votes could have contemplated a lino of action so detrimental to the whole community and so seriously fraught with disaster to those whom it was intended to serve as that to which the .Labour Party committed itself in respect of the economy proposals.