The Waimate Advertiser. (Established 1898). Published every evening since 1914. MONDAY, JUNE 28, 1926. THE CRITIC ABROAD.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 28 June 1926, Page 4

The Waimate Advertiser. (Established 1898). Published every evening since 1914. MONDAY, JUNE 28, 1926. THE CRITIC ABROAD.

Some statements concerning New Zealand made by Sir Harold Beauchamp to a Vancouver representative of the Evening Post when passing through Canada last month do not represent the Dominion in a very favorable light for the contemplation of its elder sister across the Pacific. The newspaper man in introducing his story makes a point of emphasising tho hall-mark it bears. “Regarded here as the leading financial critjc in New Zealand,” he says, “Sir Harold’s observations on finance and attendant phases of the progress of the Dominion are carefully noted. For be it sail}. New Zealand is very frequently quoted in the Press of Canada for the stability of its finances and the success of its public undertakings, such as hydro-electricity.” In the circumstances it is not surprising to learn that the interviewer was more than a little astonished when the Dominion’s “leading financial critic” turned “the spotlight of his criticism upon his own country.” New Zealanders themselves. Sir Harold told the faithful chronicler, were compelled to admit that their standard of living was excessively high and that they spent an inordinate amount in the pursuit of pleasure. Horse racing, he remarked, was their “long suit” and in this profitless pursuit they spent £600,000 a year in taxation to the State alone. After deploring the hypocrisy of the Government in accepting this contribution to its revenue, while forbidding the publication pf dividends, Sir Harold proceeded to graver disclosures for the delection of New Zealanders’ kinsmen abroad'. After a quarter of a century of prosperity, he said, the Dominion is face to face with a, slump. He estimates a decline of £10,000,000, “if not more,” in the value of the exports for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 1927. “This means” he declared with the confidence of the financial prophet, “that there must be considerable shortening of sail if the financial equilibrium of tho Ship of State is to lie preserved, and of course such a policy will be unpalatable to those who believe in the principle of enjoying to-day and leaving to-morrow to take care of itself.” Flouting the opinion of the Hon. W. Pember Reeves, who made a careful examination of the position during his recent visit to the Dominion, Sir Harold believes many of the farmers of the country to be in a perilous position. “A large number of them,” he told the Vancouver journalists, “are : n difficulties, and are clamouring to tho Government for assistance. They got six millions through the Advances Department last year, but still, like Oliver Twist, they are clamoring for more.” And so on,' and so on. Tne head of a large financial institution ' in Wellington when asked

if this gloomy picture fairly represented the condition of the country, inclined to regard Sir Harold Beauchamp, when he went travelling, rather as a humorist than as a prophet. “As soon as Sir Harold goes out of Wellington,” he said, “he begins to conjure up bogies of one kind and another to keep this country in order. He loves talking to newspaper men. whether at Home or abroad, and the newspaper men always find him with a story to tell. Twenty years ago, even during tho war, he did good services to the country in this respect, keeping it well advised as to the movements of the financial barometer and its indications. But with lessened responsibilities and probably with more leisure, he has become, in a benevolent kind of way, a persistent scaremonger. We all are preparing as best we can for a decline in the prices for,our primary products and we all have difficulties on our hands we do not shout from the housetops; but having prepared for trouble to the best of our ability we are not inviting it to hurry along.” This appears to be the general attitude towards Sir Harold’s travelling predictions, a vigilant reliance upon the resources of the Dominion to pull it through. Ministers of the Crown just now ape not particularly anxious to discuss in detail the various questions raised by Sir Harold Beauchamp, hut a member of the House of Representatives, who may be taken to represent the views of the average politician, thinks Sir Harold might have selected a more appropriate time and place for the launching of his criticism of the Dominion. This authority, a farmer himself, denounces strongly the implication that the farmers have wrung six millions in a single year from the Government and still are clamoring for more. It is of a piece, he says,' with the assertion that the Government is guilty of hypocrisy in accepting taxation from the totalisator and then forbidding the publioation of dividends. The taxation he points out, is part of the country’’® fiscal policy and the suppression of the publication of dividends is the act of a section of Parliament with which Sir Harold himself is understood to be sympathetically associated. “Why Sir Hqrold should go to Canada to cry ‘stinking fish,’ ’’ this indignant individual said in discussing the Vancouver story, “I don’t know, but he ought to hear about it when he comes back to New Zealand.” This is not argument, perhaps, but it is a natural retort to the traveller’s aspersions.