RAISING THE WIND IN N.S.W.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2047, 6 September 1920, Page 6

RAISING THE WIND IN N.S.W.

Labour, who, we are so frequently assured, can govern so much better than the other class, is showing its quality in New South Wales. Mr John Storey is hard up. That is to say, the Government of which he is the head, is hard up. It wants money —a lot of it for all sorts of things, and is considering various expedients for raising the wind. One of these is announced to-day. The Treasurer, it is cabled, is pondering a scheme 1 for Slate lotteries. The prizes are to be big, the inducements to the 5/- : speculator alluring. By this means I the Government hopes to obtain anything up to £1,200,000 annually: | apparently, there is to be a "consultation" every year. State lotteries, as in France, for example, are an attractive method of getting "at the public's pocket-money. When Britain was threatened with a financial disaster, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was urged- from many influential quarters to give the Premium Bonds system a trial. After some hesitation, Mr Chamberlain rejected the proposal. So far as the New r South Wales notion goes, we are not concerned as to whether it is moral or unmoral, practicable or otherwise. The point to which we would draw local Labour's attention is the superlative statesmanship (?) which so far has characterised Mr Storey's Government. Admittedly, Mr Storey's present difficulties are not all of his own creating. He inherited a burdensome and harassing legacy; still, it was a legacy bequeathed by another Labour Administration. However, no one can fairly blame Mr Storey and his team for not having made marked progress, but they can be criticised for the lack of imagination and statesmanlike thought in their performances to date. Where is that vaunted legislative superiority, which, we have been assured is the monopoly of Labour? Mr McGirr, the Minister of "Motherhood, Courtship and Marriage," is asking for a couple of millions annually wherewith to subsidise families. The Premier wants a million or two for wheat silos. The Minister of Education requires (he asserts) as much and more for his department, and backs up his claim with a very gloomy picture of educational affairs- in the State. Mr Dooley, another Minister, has promised the workers thousands and thousands of houses—"as soon as he can get funds and material." In the circumstances, therefore, we may find extenuation for the State lotteries' suggestion. Rut even should the Government obtain the money that the Treasurer anticipates, its troubles will not be ended. Mr Storey is not his own master, and his Trades Hall dictators, while applauding family doles and relief works, will not move, or allow the Government to move, in the direction of enforcing the principle that when more money is spent there should be a greater return for it. The Labour Party in the mother State may spend millions in placating and; pampering the workers, but so long as the workers go on cutting down the output by reducing hours, nobody but the middlemen will be any the better off. Labour everywhere is doing less per man and getting a lot more for it than it did in preWar days. Wages have increased, output decreased. For such a state of affairs Government lotteries and bonuses for children are no solution. On the contrary, they merely serve to aggravate the evil. If people leaned less on the State nowadays, they and the State would be much better off in the long run.