Nelson Railway

The National party has already changed its tone on one important question—the Nelson railway. When the plan was first announced the National party, including Maryborough's Mr Shand, couldn't denounce it loudly enough. Mr Holyoake was away then, but since his return he has said several times that his party would first examine the plan thoroughly, if it got into office, and then decide what to do about it. This leaves the party conveniently uncommitted until after the election, with Mr Holyoake able to say that he can't be more definite until the government chooses to give more details of the scheme. This is a big step back from the Party's first outery about "a shocking waste of public money," and probably a prudent step, too.

In retrospect it was a good thing that the government did not consider calling Parliament into session in February to enact tax cuts early in the year. This idea was mooted in the Labour party last year, but it would have been a gamble to enact the cuts before the six-monthly accounts were made out. Now Mr Nordmeyer has found that taxes have not yielded the expected amount, and there is an £18 million deficit in the public accounts. This, gloomy enough in itself, would have made any tax cuts backfire badly, and the Government would have looked pretty silly.