The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY AUGUST 19, 1920. A DANGEROUS DEPARTURE.

Timaru Herald, Issue 170299, 19 August 1920, Page 6

The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY AUGUST 19, 1920. A DANGEROUS DEPARTURE.

Mr Lloyd George in Iris House of Commons speech, did not exaggerate the danger of the precedent created by the. Labour Conference, in setting- up, on its own responsibility, what aims practicably at being- a separate Government for the control of foreign policy. There can only be one government in A country unless its government is to be chaos. The claim of a workers* conference to set tip to-day a, "Council of Action" for the forcible opposing- of the policy of the country's Government on one issue might be transferred at any moment to another issue. Other workers' conferences might form other Councils, with "direct action" as their slogan, or a conference of employers might claim the right to resist some taxation of which they disapproved. The Labour Party, which hopes to form its own Government in the future, shows small wisdom by the adoption of such, methods". There is a special absurdity in this Council of Action in that it has been set up to oppose a policy which is, for the present at least, and so long as the Bolsheviks act as they have engaged to do, identical with, the policy of the Labour Party. "While the. Allied Conference was agreeingon this moderate policy, the Labour Conference was appointing its Council and passing its violent resolutions, which were published on the same day with the official announcement that any measures which Great Britain might adopt would be subject to the approval of Parliament. If the French Government chooses to adopt a different policy Mr Lloyd George cannot properly be blamed for that, and the .people who talk scornfully of "French militarists' 5 seem to forget that one war, more important to them than any between Russia and Poland, might have lasted twelve months longer but for Marshal Foeh. It is not shown that the League of Nations could 'have stopped 'the present war, or that any British action could have stopped it unless Great Britain had been ready to fight the Poles to prevent them from beginning, or rather from continuing their fight with Russia. Would the Labour Party have agreed to that course 'f Part of the trouble , with the Labour Party, of course, is that it does not trust the Government, which has followed different policies in regard to Russia, though not with regard to this Polish war. The Government- has spoken with different voices, and Mr Churchill would be better out of it. It is, however, for Parliament, and not for" any section of the people, to decide what British policy is to be. The French Government has very properly expelled the British. Labour delegates sent to stir up French 'workers to arrogate the functions | of government in France,

motors mm ROADS, The Minister for Internal Affairs, who heard the views recently of the New Zealand Automobile Union in regard to a tax on motor cars to be spent on road improvement, will not have to hear a different story from the bouth Island Union. The two bodies agree that the best way to levy the tax will be to place it on tyres, and both are opposed to any rebate system. The Minister has stated, however, . that there must be differentiation between pleasure and commercial vehicles, and we should be surprised if any Government could be persuaded of a different principle. It is not merely that the man who maintains a car and desires the best roads merely for his pleasure ought to pay more than those to whom cars- are at once a necessity and an appreciable expense or business. If a heavy tax were imposed on commercial motors it would not be paid by their owners at all. It, or the greater part of it, would be passed on by the business man or business firm as a matter of course and probably of necessity to the general -public, which is not the purpose of the motor tax that the motor unions Lave recommended. It is true that some business cars are used almost as much for pleasure, but no system of taxation can get lid of all injustice. A more cogent consideration is that some motor services are more important to the public than others, and would suffer more from even light taxation. Injustice and hardship can be minimised by a graded system of rebates; tor some public services the whole duty should be refunded. No one, for example, would desire to tax the PlunkeC Nurse's car.

A novel suggestion was made by _ the South. ■.-Island Motor Union, though it was, not embodied in a motion, that separate dominion road boards should be set up for the two«islands to ensure a just apportionment of the proceeds of the motor tax between them. The idea was that the money "raised in each island should be spent upon its roads, and no others. It is necessary that a 'different system should be pursued in the allocation of this fund from that followed in the matter of ordinary Public Works expenditure, which puts the North Island first and the South Island almost nowhere. Bub two sets of machinery should not be needed. If a start were to be made on those lines, we might as well go back to the provincial system of government altogether. South Island motorists should bo satisfied if a return is shown each year of the amount of tax collected and its allocation. It will be .their fault then, and the fault of South Island politicians, if this island does not get a fair deal. The motor tax, in pressing for which the motor unions have shown a highly commendable spirit, _ will not give us perfect roads in the next ten years, but it should do a good deal for improvement of highways.