INCOMPETENT.

White Ribbon, Volume 25, Issue 290, 18 August 1919, Page 9

INCOMPETENT.

When the good old National Gox eminent i> decent h buried at next elee’ion, max we suggest that the ve x kindest epitaph this country oin •dace upon its grave is tln* word ‘ In eoinpetent.” Stirring times have passed during its life, events happened in rapid succession, times and (‘Vents in which and by which gieat reputations can he made 01 marred. Hut this Government has

made no reput.ition, and has cffectually marred the reputation that anx of its members max have rained before. They have been repeatedly weighed in the balances and always found want ing. Take for instance our railways, l or over two years a shortage of co. I threatened them, and that in a land which holds a foremost rank as a (oal-pjoducing country. Despite the length of time the ( loud was in gathering and despite thenoisx mutteringsof the tapidly approaching s’orm, it burst on .1 Minister utterly unprepared and incapable of coping with it. And the country now suffers from a terrible paralxsis of business, and .in uttci stoppage of all its industrial activities. With out tine network of railwax s and on oui splendid system of State-owned lines, onlx one dreary hearse, yclept in strange irony ‘‘an express” wends its weary wax ah. ino miles in nine hours. Business prac t. 4.1 i!x .it a standstill, ietters posted in Wellington on Mondax night are of’en not delivered in Dunedin till Fiidax morning. Slow lx our industries are closing down, here a sawmill, there a cement xvorks, dismissing .ill it , cm - ploxees and * losing its doors, either lH*cai'>*c it cannot get its raw material , for manufacture or that it cannot get the aiticle when maiiuf n turrd railed away to a purchaser. lYuple were urged to live in the suburbs to relieve the congestion in the centres of population, and now these suburbanites are harassed in everx possible wax. Children are forced to roam the <itx streets over an houi waiting for a train to get them home, and arrive at home after dark. If you want to take a train journex you are treated as a criminal and forced *o disclose ><>ur private business to a railxxax ottici.ll who judges w liethei it is important enough for you «o be alloxxed to use out State railway. Of couise, if you are one of the wealthy it does not *f feet xou ; all you have to do is to get a mo’or, and vou can travel xxhere xoti like. Had Mr Merries managed a pii vate line he xxould have got Ins xx Ik ing ti< kef long ago for absolute in competence; but, alas, a long-suffer-

ing country c innot dismiss an incompetent servant until there is an ole* - lion. The same muddle is obseived in the Police Deparment Mow of‘en ard hoxv strenuously has the demand f 1 police women been urged up* n the Minister of the Crown. Hut the hide bound conservatism, and the ( r.:-s stu pidity nf the Minister in « h igr of the department l>l*»(ks tMis» mu* li ne* (led leform. And thG Dominion is left

lagging behind ail other and more progressive countiie.s. I’alice women hive been pronounced a great sue* es> wherever tried, and the Minister his n«» argument against them. Mr Wil* ford, with all the unreasoning ob>t : - naex of a small mind. told, a d* put • •ion that they xxould .uvet get this return while he held tie portfolio. ‘•Vju shall not have hem while I’m here, but I shall not be hen* all the time.” So instead of regular police xyoin* n we have health patiols, good enough in tln-ir way, but not what was wanted. This Dominion must have p)l (ewomen in the be t interests A i s (liildho d and girlhood, even if we h \v t» file the obstinate Minister to get them. So it is in everx department; huge *,uni> muddled axxax on “Defence, while our schools an* starved and edu ea-ion lagging behind :n » , verx dcpait iiic’.t, Oui cool storage is taxed t«) r uttermost with perishable got d% ..n ! there is a butter famine. Hut pi i< r, must !>*• kept up, ami rathe* than release cheese to feed the people, it is k« p* till it becomes b;:d and then it can alxxavs be used as manuie b> the tanner. it s no use attempting to lax the blame on the working man. Our Minister should remember that is is an ,:xi >m in Government that xxhen there i> trouble between a superior and an inferior, lx tween (inploxci ard eniplox (*\ for example, xou must alxxax s look in the first instance l* the supeiioi loi the fault. In other words, 1 you knoxx |,ow to lead xou will be followed. The trouble G that we have not » leader of nu n in the National Govern mint. The best thing this Dominion 4 .in d > is at the election to relegate tlxrm to private life where they call 1 ke positions in whi«li thex must be capable of doing the work or else make wax foi men xxho can do it.