NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 21 October 1901, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The present Parliament has evidently heard the last of the ’Frisco mail service, the Government being disinclined to risk any more close divisions upon a question that is becoming more unpopular every year. The next trial of strength over the subsidising

of a foreign line of steamers will be left to next Parliament, the Postmaster General before leaving Wellington for Invercorgill on Saturday last having emphatically stated that the ’Frisco mail question would not come up again next session, the extending of the contract for eighteen months enabling Government to hold over the matter till the new Parliament meets, when we hope, unless the American shipping laws are altered in the meantime, that ships flying the Union jack will be employed o&rrying British mails*

Government policy in regard to State coal mines will depend entirely upon the will of Parliament. This fact Mr. Seddon clearly sets forth in the following telegram to Mr. Matheson, President of the Greymouth Chamber of Commerce : —“ Your representation will receive fullest consideration at the hands of the Government* All depends whether Parliament passess State Coal Mines Bill.” When the Ministry could secure a majority upon an unpopular question like the ’Prise.) mail service, there seems no reasonable doubt as to their ability to get a substantial majority in favor of State coal mines—a proposal that has long been strenuously advocated in all centres of the colony. Reading be tween the lines we are convinced that ere many months are over the Grey Valley and Point Elizabeth coat mines will be State concerns.