THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1935. THE FAMILIAR THEME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22709, 23 October 1935, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1935. THE FAMILIAR THEME

Whether Mr Savage has, or has not, any talent for music, it is to be fearer] that he would be as unimpressive in musical composition as he is in political controversy. The Labour leader seems to lack an original mind. In politics he has one theme song entitled " What the Coalition Government Has Done," with an alternative title, " What the Coalition Government Has Not Done," words and music by Mr M. J. Savage. But he appears to be stuck for variations, and it may really be suggested that it is time the party choristers, if they can raise a whistle between them, sought to help him out of: his difficulty. A few variations would at least give the leader's threadbare theme the tinkle of a spurious originality. Mr Savage intoned his plaintive song—it is written on one note, in a minor key—once again on Monday evening, this time to an audience in Palmerston North. It is not on record that there was any demand for an encore. But we shall hear it again nevertheless. Such doleful music as Mr Savage makes is one of the deplorable consequences of an election campaign. And the Labour leader is such a persevering performer that he has become as difficult to avoid

as a radio crooner and just about as irritating to listeners. The burden of Mr Savage's complaint, to-day as always, is that the present Government has done nothing right. At the same time he makes it quite plain that even if it had he would not admit it. His mood is just as defiant now as it was during the Address-in-Reply debate, when he summarised his dismal indictment of the Government in fourteen points. There are only twelve in the latest list, but the substance of the original catalogue is retained. For want of better material he is still forced to rely on childish irrelevancies, on paltry half-truths and on what appears to be deliberate misrepresentation. There are no halfmeasures about Mr Savage, no damning with faint praise. The Government does not deserve praise for anything, if we were to believe him, and it is not going to get any. Its record is simply one of ineptitude, amounting in some cases to out-and-out malfeasance. It has destroyed trade and industry, brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy, wrecked half the State departments and distorted the functions of the remainder, bankrupted the Superannuation Funds, flouted all the accepted principles of a democracy, been the sole cause of unemployment and committed a host of other administrative iniquities. Mr Savage omits to mention that the Government caused the depression. In fact, he omits to mention the depression at all, which, with our knowledge of Mr Savage's taste for votes, does not surprise us a bit. Yet the depression has exercised some influence on governmental methods. It has compelled not only the Government but also the majority of the governed to do some original thinking. The Leader of the Opposition is apparently among the minority who have yet to awaken from their Rip Van Winkle slumbers to find the world a changed place, for we can find no evidence of fresh thought in any of his tirades. That, of course, is doing him less than justice. For, while Mr Savage's ranting will not impress a single voter with a mind of his own, it is perfectly obvious that he is merely playing the party game for all it is worth, but with a singular lack of subtlety. He would not be slow to turn the immense improvement in the country's finances, and in the general business outlook, to his own advantage were he to secure possession of the Treasury benches. How else he could hope to implement one half of Labour's expensive policy Heaven alone knows. If Mr Savage also has knowledge he is very reluctant to share it with the uninitiated. He himself has never striven to point any way out of the economic morass other than that which the Government adopted, or shown any willingness to share the burden of responsibility that has weighed" heavily on the Coalition. He declares that the Government has destroyed public works policy by curtailing expenditure at a time when money for other than essential works simply could not be found. He knows that thousands of men registered as unemployed would be more accurately described as unemployable, and that if the Unemployment Board did not provide for them hospital boards or other charitable organisations would have to do so. He knows that the condition of the Superannuation Funds is not the responsibility of the Coalition, and he knows, too, that there has been no withdrawal of benefits under the schemes and that the Government is attending to the problem of the funds' solvency. Amongst his other financial plans Mr Savage doubtless has one for finding the paltry twenty odd millions required to make the funds actuarially sound. But again he prefers to be secretive. Mr Savage must know just how creditable the Government's record of achievement is. But he feels it would not do to make any damaging admissions. For, if honest, they would be damaging—to his own party's interests.