Patea & Waverley Press MONDAY, MARCH 21, 1932 WANTED—A POLICY.

Patea Mail, Volume LIII, 21 March 1932, Page 2

Patea & Waverley Press MONDAY, MARCH 21, 1932 WANTED—A POLICY.

THE present Coalition Government has now been in office since December 2 last, but so far there is not the slightest sign of any policy. It .was thought and hoped by a large number of electors that many members of the Coalition Ministry having been in Parliament for some time, and having held office previously, would know what was required to place the finances of the country on a sound footing and would frame a policy accordingly. Instead of such a statesmanlike procedure beingfollowed, the Government has definitely acknowledged its ignorance of the country’s affairs and its incompetency by setting up various commissions to ascertain facts which should have already been known to the Government better than to anyone else in the world. For example, it did not require the setting up of a commission to inform the Government that the salaries paid to Bellamy’s since 1914-15 had almost doubled, though the members of both Houses of Parliament had been practically the same, if anything, probably less than prior to 191415, owing to the number of deaths of members of the Legislative Council of recent years. It did not need a commission either to point out to the Government that whereas up to March 31, 1915, when the'country had been transformed from a wilderness into a modern colony, with practically all the roads, bridges, railways, post offices, courthouses and other public buildings it needed, the public debt stood at one hundred millions—since 1915 and up to 1931 this debt had been increased to two hundred and seventy-six millions —a debt out of all proportion to the country’s income' and population. It should have been patent to the Government controlling the affairs of the country that with the heavy extra expenditure entailed by the Great War every effort should be made to curtail borrowing, otherwise the country would be overwhelmed with debt. As it was the successive Ministers, with the aid of the members of Parliament, continued the orgy of borrowing until brought to a standstill by the present period of depression. Now ip its panic-stricken haste to exercise economy which should have been commenced immediately after the war, when the heavy war expenditure had to be pro* vided for, there is a very real danger of the, country being committed to further expenditure by the setting up of further boards, which should never be required, and by transferring work that is at present being curried out voluntarily to the shoulders of Departmental officials, who will be only too .ready to utilise the transfer as an excuse for extra staff, with consequent additional expenditure to the country. The trouble with this country in the last twenty-five years has been that the politicians have listened too readily to the advocates of Socialism and those who were wont to denounce the old Conservative Party, and have endeavoured to strike the happy medium between the two parties and please the people, with the result that the CQVintty has been comudtted to

Socialistic schemes in the way of State undertakings that were far beyond its means. New Zealand is not an India with wealth untold, oi* teeming millions of people, and the politicians should have realised this fact and acted accordingly. Instead of this course being followed we have instances on every hand of lavish expenditure—the Auckland Railway Station, for example—far and away beyond the country’s needs. A great deal of the extravagance can be traced to the time when the proposal was made that the country be termed a “Dominion.” This country, when its youth and its very limited population are considered, has no more right to be termed a Dominion than a back country settlement has the right to be termed a city. It is to be hoped that the present period of depression will open the eyes of the people to the need of seeing that the country is more economically governed and at the same time that Avhatever economy is ejected is economy that will be real, and not result in extra expenditure in the long run. A definite policy in this direction is badly needed. _