MUCH ADO.

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17786, 10 August 1929, Page 6

MUCH ADO.

People who make complaints should always be careful to understate them. An accused person who can show that he or she has been charged falsely in any particular, however small, may easily become the aggrieved one and turn the tables. Sir Joseph Ward made the error of overstating his case when he accused the late Minister of Finance, Mr Downie Stewart, of so arranging the finances that it was practically impossible to borrow for two years. The Premier has failed to make it clear that his hands are bound at all, but if they are, he is compelled to admit that he was in error to some extent. It is difficult to understand what is behind the fuss that has been made. All that appears to the eye of laymen is that, having borrowed from London in January this year, Sir Joseph feels himself under an obligation to keep off that market until after March next year. The nature of the obligation is not clear, but, whatever it may be, a Finance Minister with so much experience of borrowing as he has had would surely have known of it before taking office. Sir Joseph has certainly not found it easy to borrow and make advances to settlers at the low rates of interest he led the electors to hope for. His political innings naturally has its difficulties, but the accusation against his predecessor of “cruelling the pitch” has yet to be proved to unbiassed people.