The Sun 42 WYNDHAHI STREET AUCKLAND TUESDAY. MAY 27, 1930 NARCOTICS IN POLITICS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 982, 27 May 1930, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAHI STREET AUCKLAND TUESDAY. MAY 27, 1930 NARCOTICS IN POLITICS

NEW ZEALANDERS generally clo not like to be startled out of their sleep. They prefer a gentle awakening lest pleasant dreams be disturbed. For these reasons the stirring address by Mr. James Fletcher,, an Auckland industrialist, to the Napier Rotary Club yesterday, may not receive the full appreciation it deserves. Indeed, it is probable that within some sensitive and even stupid circles he will, like this frank column, be assailed for the practice of harsh criticism and disconcerting candour. Those who see things as they are and tell the truth are more often stoned than blinkered prevaricators and plausible humbugs. In an industrialist’s diagnosis of the Dominion’s sick condition, Mr. Fletcher is convinced that the country suffers from the effects of political narcotics. Good times with borrowed money have developed flabbiness. As a result, enterprise and individual effort have sagged and withered. And instead of seeking a quick recovery in rationing and self-reliant exercise the weak, but, willing victims of political dope clamour for further doses of the same drug at similar extravagant prices. The process of national stock-taking shows plainly that the business of State and local government is not in a good way. It prospers only on borrowed money. “How (or where) do the Government and local bodies stand?” They do not stand firmly on their own feet. Both are propped up by excessive taxation—crutches which now represent a burden of over £l7 a year on each person in the country, thus making New Zealand the secondhighest taxed community in the whole world. It has been asked by Mr. Fletcher if any member of Parliament can say with sincerity that we are today not carrying a surplus of State-paid employees? Of course, none of them dare say that, and all of them will say nothing about it, for the simple reason that retrenchment now, however essential, merely would transfer the enormous cost of an overloaded Public Service to less economical expenditure on record unemployment relief. There can be no challenge to the fact that the cost of State and local government in the Dominion is enough to make even a doped community shudder. Together, the Government and 686 local bodies, for a population much the same as Glasgow’s, employ eighty-five thousand paid workers at the tremendous cost of £19,000,000 a year. Then there is the expanding indebtedness of the State and municipal bodies. Its growth exceeds that of the fabled beanstalk, and there are no administrators with the courage of Jack, the Giant-Killer. It grows and grows, and when a statesman promises to add £70,000,000 to the height of the grotesque stalk a narcotised country first dances with the delight of greedy anticipation and then is lulled to sleep. 'Within a dozen years local body indebtedness alone has increased from £22,000,000 to over £60,000,000. The State has no better a record of borrowing. It may he argued, of course, that a great proportion of the borrowed money is more than interest-earning and represents an asset rather than a liability. Let that be granted and much more of the same sort of argument as a make-weiglit, but to paraphrase Mr. Fletcher’s timely words, can we, as taxpayers, as business men, as responsible citizens, view the position without wondering where we are heading. There need be little more wonder about it. Unless New Zealand’s administrators and its people take stock and determine to call a halt to extravagance the Dominion will head rapidly toward the plight of' Australia, where a rude awakening forced the worse-doped Australians out of their soft beds of borrowed roses under a stimulating cold shower. It was protracted folly that turned Australia to courageous wisdom. So it is bound to be with this country unless it mend its ways. In the past decade New Zealand’s Customs revenue has increased 134 per cent! Imports have become swollen from £22,000,000 to close on £50.000,000 a year. And it still is necessary to plead for the development of local manufactures ! Political narcotics ? These are as bad as high blood-pressure or strychnine poisoning. Praise is due to Mr. Fletcher for his courage and clear-sightedness. lie has reflected among Rotarians the penetrating beams of The Sun. WESTERN AUSTRALIA’S DISCONTENT BESET as the Australian Commonwealth Government is by a host of economic difficulties, its nerves are in poor condition to stand the reappearance of an apparition that has haunted many a past legislator. Nevertheless the wail from the west can he heard with unmistakable distinctness, and a secession move is materialising swiftly and formidably. A campaign with strong political backing has been opened in Perth by enthusiastic citizens. Ever since the birth of the Commonwealth, sections of Western Australia have strained against the bonds of federation, while the capital of the State has been a nursery of discontent. The same grieyance is an old one in Tasmania, and a commentator recently said; “Perhaps secession is nearer today in Tasmania than it ever was in Western Australia in the days when complaints from Perth were long and loud.” . It is perhaps significant that this desire for independence should come from two geographical extremes of the continent, but the strength of the two claims are by no means equal. The unrest growing in Perth has been increased in recent years by the remarkable expansion of Western Australia’s agricultural industries, together with the promise in 1929, its centenary year, of a great future. It is scarcely surprising that, on the political side, there should he a serious demand for freedom. Western Australia, the production figures of which are now in the neighbourhood of 50,000,000 bushels of wheat and 60,000,0001 b of wool each year, embraces more than 600,000,000 acres—one-third of the Australian Continent—yet it is represented by only five members in a house of 72. It cannot be pretended that such a meagre handful, however valiant, can be arrayed equitably against the tremendous interests of the swollen cities, the influences of Labour, and the principles of home charity along the eastern seaboard. The present campaign in the west, with its strong political hacking, may have far-reaching consequences, but it is not to be thought that the problem of giving effect to the yearning expressed in Perth is merely one of machinery legislation and sentiment. Constitutional difficulties are bound to arise, for the Commonwealth will be exceedingly loath to surrender its interest in a rich State, or lose unity of control at a critical stage in Australia’s economic development. On the other hand Western Australia can see clearly the advantages of self-government. Perth is 2,000 miles away from the clamour of Canberra and 2,000 miles nearer London.’ It is .the western gateway to Australia and, because of its situation is not menaced, as is Tasmania, by deprivation of essential services. In a word 'Western Australia considers itself in the happy position of being able to progress faster and more successfully if unfettered by Commonwealth restraints and financial obligations. This time Canberra may find that the ancient spectre has assumed a mantle of permanence and firm reality.