The Taranaki Herald. DAILY EVENING FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1919. CRITICISM OF REFORM.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16609, 5 December 1919, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. DAILY EVENING FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1919 . CRITICISM OF REFORM.

- Sometimes it is rather difficult to draw a line between fair and unfair political criticism, but ordinarily considerable latitude is allowed. Criticism, however, whether fair or unfair, may always be fairly answered. Mr. Masters, the Liberal candidate for Stratford, has endeavoured to make capital out of the decreased business of the Advances to Settlers Department since the Reform Party came into power in 1912. It might fairly be retorted that Sir Joseph Ward was Minister in charge of the State Advances Department during four years of the sis under review, but we want to be quite fair to Mr. Masters and his political leader. Dor the year ended March 31, 1912, the last year the Liberal Party was in power, the loans authorised- numbered 4610 and totalled £2,191,300, and Mr. Masters points out that since the advent of Reform advances have decreased until last year they totalled only £353,465. These are figures taken from the YearBook and it may therefore be claimed by him as fair criticism. But Mr. Masters has quoted only what suited him. Ho did not tell his audience that in 1913, the Reform Party’s first year of office, the applications for loans were less by 2168 in number and £1,428,759 in amount than in the previous year and that last year there were only 1228 applications for £511,532. In the last four Liberal years 68 per cent, of the loans applied for wore authorised, while in the six years of Reform and Coalition 60 per cent, were authorised, notwithstanding the fact that during four of those years the demands of the war necessitated great caution in all financial matters. The great reduction in the applications for loans during the last two or three years may be attributed to the great prosperity ruling drrring the period, not to any neglect or indifference on the part of the Reform or National Governments. If Mr. Masters’ criticism is warranted at all it should be directed at the National Government and especially at Sir Joseph Ward as the Minister in charge of the Advances Office from 1915 to 1919. But it was not a fair criticism. Then at Fitzroy last night Mr. S. G. Smith sought to make political capital out of the management of the High Commissioner’s office in London. He was satisfied, he said, that it was one of the. most glaring cases of wasted opportunity and the waste of thousands of pounds a year for which the Reform Government ' was responsible. But he too, like Mr. Masters, failed to say that the National Government was responsible during four of the seven years since the Reform Government sucoeded the Liberal Party. The Reform Government took over the High Commissioner’s office from the Liberal Government, and, as Mr. Smith admits, has acquired a better office in a more suitable situation. Ho complains, however, of meagre use of the opportunities, though he failed to tell his audience that the High Commissioner wKb is responsible, was a former Minister of the Crown in Sir Joseph Ward’s Cabinet. It was therefore not qxiite fair to blame the Reform Government for all the shortcomings of the High Commissioner’s office.