POLITICAL TALKS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 584, 9 February 1929, Page 6

POLITICAL TALKS

1 REAPING WHAT WE SOW WIZARDRY IN FINANCE i I (Written for THE SUN by D. Jones, 31. P.) The Dominion has been recently through a General Election in which each party endeavoured to prove that it was best fitted to he trusted with the government of tne country. The electors hear the varying platforms and statements of the candidates and are puzzled how to assess them at their real value. Between j elections they are busy people hav- ' iug their own affairs to attend to, and have not the opportunity to keep in such close touch with the political questions oL the day as has the member of Parliament. The issue, however, lies in their hands and not infrequently they choose a party because of its extravagant promises. A people seldom learns by experience; history is always repeating itself, and most of the millstones with which we are weighted have come through the above cause. ANNUA L STOCKTAKING The importance of the annual stocktaking is recognised in all sound businesses; it is very easy to get the shelves loaded up with goods that, because of improvements, are superseded or have gone out of fashion and are hard to quit. If these are not written down the business may look prosperous on paper and yet be drifting rapidly toward the Bankruptcy Court. Stocktaking and valuation are more difficult, but equally important, in connection with national affairs, but how difficult it is to get the public to believe that political economy is a hard master that always exacts its pound of flesh. The popular opinion seems to be that a Government has a hidden and inexhaustible supply of money, and if you cry out long and loud enough some of it will be handed over to you. More and more the prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,’’ is being addressed to the Government. The children are satisfied with Santa Claus at t Christmas, but not so their fathers: their Santa Claus is the Government, and he must neither slumber nor sleep. “What’s the Government going to do about it?’’ is one of the commonest phrases of the day. PUBLIC BORROWING We would be much more careful of expenditure and insistent that the fullest investigation be made into big public undertakings if we realised that the Government has no money. It only gives back to the people, in various forms, the money it first took from them, less the cost of administration. It may and does borrow money, but every year the interest has to be found by the people, and some day the principal. If this money is spent on works that are reproductive in the sense that they are commercially sound and will profitably increase production, such as our hydro-electric power, then the expenditure is more than justified. If, however, the reverse is the case and borrowed money is spent for work that should be paid out of revenue, or State enterprises such as railways, and other public works be undertaken that do not pay, there will be a false sense of prosperity while the money is being spent. By and by the burden will fall on the backs of the people and must be carried. It is as true of the nation as the individual that “whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” FINANCIAL WIZARDS Some politicians claim to be able to do many wonderful things; so do wizards, but I have never known a wizard who was able to turn an overdraft at the bank into a credit balance by sleight of hand: indeed, it is well known that good wizards make very bad financiers. The importance of the above facts has been realised by the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia. the Itt. Hon. S. M. Bruce. At the Imperial Conference in the autumn of 1926 he raised the question of sending a mission of four independent business men from the United Kingdom to Australia; it was subsequently arranged by the Federal Government that the personnel of such a mission should be nominated by his Majesty’s Government in Great Britain and should proceed to Australia with a wide order of reference. The valuable report presented by these men I shall deal with next week.