NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 11, 8 October 1919, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

If at all representative of the goncral run of soldier settlement the report of the Crown Lands Commissioner for- tho Wellington province must be regarded as a subject for congratulation. The reports of the rangers on the Crown land sections taken up by soldier settlers are stated to be, generally speaking, very satisfactory, and tho success of the settlers on the whole of these settlements, with the execution of perhaps two, is pronounced to be practically assured. In other instances where the men. have taken' up improved land some remarkably good returns have already been obtained; especially in the case, of dairying land. The Commissioner had anticipated that 13 per cent, of the soldier settlers who took '.tip land would not succeed as farmers, presumably because they were unpuifced for the life. In actual fact the ocrcentage of failures in this province has been less than half the number expected, namely 5.2 per cent. This is a remarkably good record, especially when it is taken into account that many of the men who took up land were inexperienced in farm life. -

It would seem that there must be some foundation for the opinion that the Hon. G. W. Russell' is much perturbed concerning his prospects at the coming general election. An idea appears to prevail in Canterbury that the Labour nominee has made a lot of headway in popular favour for the. Avon seat and that the outcome of the election is a very' open question. This accounts, perhaps, for the very blatant electioneering 'which' the ex-Minister has been indulging in this session. Unfortunately for himself his efforts are a- little too transparent. Earlier in the session he received a very severe rebuff when an elaborate amendment with which he sought to embarrass the Government and win popular approval failed in a House of SO members to find even a seconder. This was a most unusual and significant happening. Last evening he m&do another bid for popularity by moving an amendment to the Estimates- indicating to the Government the necessity for increasing widows' pensions this session. When it was pointed out that, it was impossible to go on piling up expenditure without increasing taxation and that it was hopeless to think of passing-legislation this ses sion covering such a difficult question as the incidence of taxation, lie retorted that the money could lie secured b« increasing the death duties. F" thereupon received a nrompt sniilt from his leader, ShiJoseph W\pd, who pointed out that revenue from cK'ifh'duties was de">!udnP.t on deaths; in oilier words, that it was an uiic«rt.- , i*i source of revenue. Apparently Mil. Russell i« not ponnlar with his own party. Wro.t he fails fn recognise, hmvevr. is (hat his Midden demand fnr (lie Government b rush fhroue-h in very shovl. session nil those beneficial things which the previous Government failed to do in the. four yeats during which he himself was a member of it_ sucFests n veyy low oninion. on his nnrt of the iiM/'Mi•">nee of the public. We doubt if 'lie electors are. to be so easilv fooled.

In view of tho, housing shortage and consequent overcrowding that exist in Wellington the proposal nf the City Council 'that vacant, business buildings or portions of such buildings should be madfc available as dwellings is no doubt well advised. Sucn an arrangement, however, is only tn be tolerated • as a temporary expedient, and it ou?ht to go hand-iri-hand with a buiklinr programme which within a limited period will definitely relieve the housing shortage. In any ease serious practical difficulties will present themselves. There are few business buildings that can be made realK' suitable for habitation by families without such an expenditure of labour and material as would appreciably advance cottage building operations. The City Council certainly ought not to permit such costly alterations as might raise the question of allowing otherwise inmsed flats in business buildings to be. used indefinitely as dwellings. This, of course, would mean

the creation of tenements of a particularly undesirable type.- Other considerations apart, the risk from fire in such buildings would be serious. In existing conditions, however, any measure of relief is to be welcomed, and temporary housing in business buildings under proper (safeguards may m advisable.