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Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1608, 27 November 1912, Page 6

Although the opening of the new post office building was carried out yesterday under ijiost depressing weather conditions, the occasion was one of more than passing interest to the citizens of Wellington. The de--1 vclopment of the postal and telegraphic . business of the community which has led to the necessity for the erection of the very fine building, the occasion of yesterday's ceremony, :is merely an index'to the growth arid progress of Wellington city and province. What that progress has been Can be traced through the medium of tho interesting historical. sketch of the Wellington Post Office from its | modest beginnings in the early 'forties to its present imposing _ dimen- | sions, ■ which will be found 'in our news cplumns this morning, The accommodation provided in the new building is estimated to be sufficient to meet requirements, for a great many years to come, but although it may be far in advance-of immecliI. ato needs, it is difficult to forecast what may be wanted even ten or fifj teen years hence. Wellington has in I recent years passed through ft. period i of mild depression. Perhaps it would be moro correct to say that it has passed through a period of less rapid progress .than it had been accustomed to.. At'the present time it is_ getting under way again, ana, with the more rapid land settlement and more active development of the. qountry districts 'which may be looked forward to under the polio,v • the new Government, there should' be i greater progress -all round.- At any ■■ rate, the citizens pf; Wellington '.will--1 not bo likely, to .begrudge the neoes sity for further extensions, to their post office whon tho time comes, be it evor so soon. r

People nowadays _ insure against practically all the risks that flesh is heir to, not oven excluding war visks incurred by soldiers in battle. It is a little curious to note, however, tho estimates of the percentage of risk run in certain eases, as calculated bv the underwriters. For instance, it would be thought that a soldier going to'the front in a war such as that between the Balkan States and Turkey would be a more risky proposition for an insuranco company to undertake than would be a cinematograph operator going to take pictures of , the war. Yet in the London Times of October 17 the following paragraphs appear side by side:—

A ]»licy was effected in London yesterday for six rhonths on the lives of 500 officers in the Bulgarian Army. Only the risk of death by wounds', was covered, the risk of death, by sickness/being specifically excluded. Each man is covprod for either ,£l5O or ,£2CO. The premium paid was ,£8 Bs. per cent. An insuranco for six months was yesterday effected on the lives of kinematograph operators proceeding to the Balkans at ,£lO 10s. per oent. for six months, which wa9 rather more than was quoted a week ago. Although business was actually transacted yesterday at .£lO 10s„ underwriters raised their rates later to <£15 15s.

The underwriters evidently regard the. risk of Bulgarian officers engaged in the war killed as much less than the risk incurred by the kinematograph operators who_ presumably are covered against disease as well as the .ohances of a stray bullet. Yet we were told by cable message yesterday that out of a total fighting force of 300,000, the Bulgarians have had 100,000 casualties— one in every three incapacitated in one way or another.

While the evidence of ActinqPp.esident Kennedy, of. the Waihi Miners' Union (Federation of Labour section), was not necessary to prove the unreliablencss and falseness of the allegations made by certain of the Federation of Labour leaders against the police, it is nevertheless just as Well that he should have been put into the witness-box. He is the gallant fire-eater who despised police protection so long as his union dominated the situation, but was desperately eager to claim their assistance when the Arbitrationist workers, goaded beyond endurance, turned on their persecutors. The police, of course, gave him tho protection he was entitled to, and escorted him to the railway station, from which, for so warlike a person, he made a somewhat unheroic exit from Waihi. This man, it must not be forgotten, was one of the leaders, and for a time the principal official of the strikers on the spot at Waihi. He was present throughout the disturbed period leading up to the time when certain of the strikers resorted to the use of gelignite and firearms. He is one of the members of the Federation ' of Labour who have been going about the country hurling gross charges against the police and against the Arbitrationist workers. And what happens whon he is placed in tho wit-ness-box on oath, and is- confronted with the men on the spot who know the facts V There he falls back on hearsay. He had been told this and 'told that,'and on his own showing has not scrupled to make the gravest and grossest of charges on mere hearsay, and without the slightest proof. He 'cut a sorry spectacle under cross'examination: "Ho would say to., a meeting," the Press Association-re-

port of tho court proceedings rccords liliii as stilting, "tliat ho approved of I mid] conduct (tho throwing of eggs (il 'scabs'), but on his oath lie would disapprove of this throwing of eggs." What a pitiable admission. What win his follow Fodorationists think of Mich n leader, who cncouragcs tlifui fit their meeting by his approval of but who, when placed in the witness-box, says lie disapproves of such conduct as egg-throwing, even at "scabs." The atmosphere of tho court apparently has caused him to changc his opinion. But Mn. Kknneiw probably is no better and no worse tha,n the rest of those associated with him in guiding the Fedcrationists during the Waihi trouble. The public, no doubt, have summed them up accurately enough long ere this, and the rank and lile of flic organisation of which they are such shining lights'will also not be long, we imagine, in estimating them at their true value.