Expanding Bureaucracy

Waikato Times, Volume 110, Issue 18408, 15 August 1931, Page 13 (Supplement)

Expanding Bureaucracy

Obstacles to Economy.

“ AVE are suffering In England to-day, as Rome suffered, from a constantlyexpanding bureaucracy, and the steady though silent pressure of the bureaucracy Is one of the most formidable obstacles to public economy,” writes Mr Harold Lox in the Contemporary Review. "It may be remem bered that when the Conservatives last came into power they had pledged themselves to abolish three Government Departments; all those three departments are Still in Existence and costing the country even more than before. " Wo shall nnt escape from our present difficultie's until we abandon altogether the policy of giving the masses nf the population something for nothing, and asking the tax payer to provide Hie money. There is no reason, for example, why working class parents should not contribute to the cost of the education of tUeir children* as they

continued to do for twenty years after education became compulsory. " To take a smaller matter, ft is both fair and financially desirable that people who use public libraries and museums should all make a small payment for the benefits the\ receive. There is also a possibilil of obtain Ing quite an appreciable sum of money I «r the exchequer by abolishing halfpenny postage, which is, in reality, a State charity t.» business firms. " These ar* examples of the way In w» money could be saved and taxation reduced. Every proposed economy is sure to Provoke Opposition, but we all of us have to make sacrifices If our country is to be saved from grave disaster, and, to quote the words of Mr Snowden in the House of Commons on February 11 last: ‘No class will ultimately benefit more by present economy than the ••