A VIRILE PRIME MINISTER

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1681, 3 November 1925, Page 4

A VIRILE PRIME MINISTER

MR COATES does not lag far behind the records of Mr Seddon and Mt Massey as regards electioneering activity. He is here, there, and everywhere, north and south and east 'and west, determined that the electors shall 'have some direct knowledge of his personality and its political significance. Physical as we'll as mental power is required for this restless crusading, and the possession of the dual qualification is an enviable asset to a statesman and indirectly also an asset to the country. There may occasionally be a feeling that the Prime Minister gives too free rein to his gift of vivacious phraseology. But perhaps it is a fault which leans to virtue's side. Assuredly Mr Coates's ready badinage, redolent of the trenches, is compatible with a very serious and searching treatment of public affairs. His detailed exposition of the performances and intentions of the Reform Government has 'been thoroughly convincing on the whole, and opponents have had difficulty in selecting points from his speeches that lend themselves to effective canvass. It may have been noticed that at Wanganui on Wednesday Mr Coates, in allusion to the question of public borrowing, said that he hoped to be able to borrow "outside" whatever money might be required, leaving local capital undisturbed to uevelop the industries of the Dominion." The matter of the source from which the borrowed money is obtained has two sides to' it and is not free from complexity. At the present time the Government is looking to the domestic market to supply it with loan money, the London market being, in fact, temporarily closed to applications from the dominions for "fresh" money. And, as long as the funds are available in the Dominion for the satisfaction of the legitimate requirements of the Government without detriment to the development of the industrial resources of he country, the flotation of domestic loans has plain advantages.