The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1935 “PRAY FOR US”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXL, Issue 20283, 5 December 1935, Page 8

The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1935 “PRAY FOR US”

Tons of thousands of electors in the now famous Canadian province of Alberta, who were carried off their feet by the promise of a handsome bonus that was to be paid out of currency manipulation, are beginning to wonder when the new Premier intends to put his scheme into operation. Rather than rush into a scheme that may not he found to he as workable in practice as it appeared on paper, the Social Credit Government of Alberta is faced with the everyday task of balancing its accounts. It is interesting to mention, in passing, that thousands of electors who gave their votes to the Social Credit candidates, became fearful of the future as soon as the result of the election had been made known, and they did all in their power to make it as difficult as possible for the new Government to put into operation its election promise to pay a national dividend of 25 dollars a month to every citizen. The cable messages inform us this morning that the new Premier of Alberta has met the anxious electors who have voiced their insistent protests, with the plain statement that the Government refuses to be rushed. Reasonable electors will not do anything to inconvenience the new Government, but it will not be a matter for surprise if the people of Alberta display the strongest opposition to the suggested imposition of a wage tax of 1 per cent, and the introduction of a sales tax of 1 per cent. Recourse to such methods of taxation, will doubtless arouse strong objection, particularly in view of the delay on the part of the new Government in implementing the social credit plan to provide each adult citizen with a national dividend of 25 dollars a month. Alberta is the province that gave such a big surprise to all Canada at the end of last August, and also attracted wide attention in the United States and in Great Britain. It was in Alberta that the new Social Credit Party won fifty-four seats out of a total of sixty-three in the Provincial Legislature. It is known, of course, that the success of the monetary reformers in Alberta was expected to influence the political trend in the general election in Canada, but it can he said at once that the people of Canada voted against uncertainty, and not, as The Montreal Daily Star says, in response to emotional appeals and speculative policies; indeed, the Canadian press which voices Liberal views, declares emphatically that the Social Crediters naturally rode to a local success on a wave that is still flowing, in Alberta, hut their achievement was wholly local and is not likely to survive the first serious test of the Alberta experiment. Mr Aberhart, who doubtless finds it a little more difficult to redeem election promises than to make them, is now sheltering behind the robes of Major Douglas, whose visit to Alberta has not yet materialised. But the first Social Crediter Premier in history is not over perturbed. He tells his people that difficult times are ahead and he takes the unusual course of soliciting the prayers of the people of Alberta in the troublous moments he is being called upon to face.

SOUND AND SECURE. “If the Budget is allowed to run its course,” declared Mr Coates, in handing over the finances of the country to the first Labour Administration, “I am satisfied that the net result will he a surplus, probably somewhat in excess of that provided for in the Financial Statement.” The retiring Minister of Finance owed it to himself and his colleagues to point to the stable financial position of the country at the changing of Administrations. It is already plain that the Budget will not be allowed to run its course! Announcements have already been made that will result in great changes, for instance the whole of the cuts will be restored, the five-year-olds will be admitted to the schools next year, the exchange will be reduced, the sales tax will be abolished, standard rates of pay will he given to the unemployed, and the hew • Government proposes to resume work on two uncompleted railway constructions of major importance. It can therefore be taken for granted that the budget will be completely overhauled and drastically amended. The point made by Mr Coates, however, is that the finances of the country are in a healthy condition; that the new Government comes into office with a balanced budget, with buoyant revenue and with expenditure under control. It is tolerably certain that drastic changes will be put into operation in relation to the national finances, before the end of the current financial year, because the new Government based the whole of its electioneering attacks on the policy pursued by the defeated Government in balancing its budget. Summing up the position as it confronts the country to-day Mr Coates placed this statement on reeord: “To repeat the statement made In the budget, I consider the Government can Justly claim to have piloted the Dominion successfully through the worst economic storm in its history. The foundations of recovery have been well and truly laid, and it is no small

satisfaction to the Government in relinquishing the Treasury benches to know that the budget is healthy, and the financial position of the Dominion sound and secure, that the work of reconstruction has met with a considerable measure of success, that recovery is well under way, and that business confidence has been substantially restored.”

Notwithstanding the stable financial conditions that have been restored by the Coalition Administration, the electors in a most impressive fashion, have decided to entrust the control of the Treasury to a Labour Administratration, pledged to embark upon sweeping financial and economic changes. But it must be said, whatever the outcome of the change, that the defeated Government has handed over the national finance of the country in a safe and sound condition, and the people will doubtless watch with deep interest the working out of the plan for prosperity, which Labour speakers submitted to the people and were returned with a definite mandate to go ahead.