Rangitikei Advocate SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1909. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9388, 6 March 1909, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate SATURDAY, MARCH 6,1909. EDITORIAL NOTES.

THE newly appointed Minister for Koads and Bridges, Mr Hogg, is going about the country telling settlers what splendid work he will accomplish if only he is given money enough. He does not seem to realise that it is the easiest matter possible to spend money, and - that the difficulty is to spend it wisely or to retrench after a period of lavish expenditure. Any man with two or three millions of borrowed money at his disposal can easily gain the applause of those benefited by pouring ic out for the construction of roads and bridges. Such expenditure produces a virtuous glow in the heart cf a benevolent Minister and he comes at last to believe that it is he who Is responsible for all the good work done, whereas he is really bnt the administrator of other people’s money, which he should dispense with even more care than if it was his own. It is always pleasanter to grant requests than to refuse them, hut the country has need at present not of the men who are good givers, but of those who will watch with the utmost sharpness every penny that goes out of the treasury and sternly refuse to spend except upon works of the most urgent necessity. «

ON another page, wo publish a report of a speech by Mr Roosevelt on British rule in India, which was briefly referred to in our cabled intelligence recently. ‘Many

people who have given little attention to the affairs,of India are led to believe that the people of that country are a downtrodden race, who are heavily taxed to supply revenue for Britain, and that the sooner Britain hands over the country to the natives to govern themselves, the better for the fair fame of the Empire. These were roughly the views expressed by Mr Keir Hardie in New Zealand recently, and reiterated by him during a visit to the United States about the time of Mr Roosevelt’s spe°ch. Mr Bryan, the defeated candidate for the Presidency, after a visit to India two years ago, also expressed opinions hostile to British rule, and these views were widely disseminated in the press of the United States. It is, therefore, particularly satisfactory to find that Mr Roosevelt, with full knowledge of the side'takefi by Mr Bryan and Mr Keir Hardie, deliberately ohose to describe the British administration of India as “the most notable and admirable achievement of the white race.’’ The fair-mindedness of Mr Roosevelt is generally recognised, and his testimony to the success of British rule in India will produce an effect in quarters which could not be reached by argument from British sources, however cogent it might be.