POSTERITY'S BURDEN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11752, 8 February 1918, Page 4

POSTERITY'S BURDEN.

In the course of a public address in Wellington on Wednesday might, Mr J, P. Luke expressed the opinion that a larger share of the cost of the war t should be borne by the present generation. Mr Luke is not alone in this opinion. The National Government—of which, by the way, Mr Luke is the nominee—has adopted the policy of piling up the national debt, regardless of the strain it will impose upon generations to come. Had the private wealth of the Dominion been nearing exhaustion, this policy might have been justified. But when the people have the money at their disposal, as was evidenced by the over-subscription of the last loan, there is no excuse for saddling posterity with so large a share of the burden of war. The National 'Government has not displayed anything like democratic statesmanship in the manner in which it has treated the abnormal financial situation. How Mr Luke can support a Government that has displayed incapacity and incompetence is best known to .himself. He will, of course, ride to death tlio old hobby—that it is dangerous to swap horses in the middle of a stream.