In view of these figures, one cannot help noting what
would happen after social reform on the New Zealand model had been fully applied here. New Zealand has one-fortieth of our population. Therefore, if we plunge as deeply as New Zealand into social reform, we shall be spending something like ninety- six millions a year on public works, and have some five million two hundred thousand workers dependent upon the State. Yet, in spite of that, we should still, like New Zealand, be face to face with a very large proportion of the population out of employment. The Economist, we note, recently stated that Sir Joseph Ward had expressed the opinion that there was insufficient banking capital in the country for New Zealand's requirements. The Economist tells us that if this means that it is difficult to borrow in New Zealand, the country has no one to thank but her own Parliament. New Zealand legislation has driven mortgage companies and funds intended for mort- gage purposes out of the country. "Unfortunately the effects of a great deal of that legislation were not at once apparent. The errors of Seddonism are only gradually becoming clear to the people at large." We venture to say that it will not be very long before we shall find the Economist, which now gives a good deal of erratic support to the present Government, declaring that the errors of "Lloyd Georgeism " are only gradually becoming clear to the people at large.
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