WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 30 March 1917, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

Second Division. Formation of League(Our Special Correspondent.) Wellington, March 28 Tbe meeting held last night for the purpose of forming a Second Division Leagus in Wellington very properly opened its proceeding by affirming “its loyalty to His Majesty the King and his Government in New Zedand and its determination to assist in every possible way to carry the wap to a successful conclusion.” Tbe seniimeuts 80 admirably expressed in the resolution wore ernpha* fused by all the principal speakers. But the military mind continues a little perturbed by the avowed objeols of the Leegue. The members ar9 to get together and to place their views and their claims before the Government ; they are to remember that they owe a duty to their families as well as to the State, and, without being political, they are to bring pressure to bear upon the politicians to secure more generous allowances for their dipendeuis and better conditions for themselves. The organisation still remains a somewhat hazardous experiment, bat

if its management is as tactful as its promises are fair it may avoid the pitfalls to which it hes bren consigned by many of its critics. AUSTRALIAN SICKNESS A New Zealand journalist just returned from a flying visit to tho Commonwealth gives a depressing account of the average Australian’;! attitude towards the war. “He has no attitude,” he deplotes, “except one of indolent indifference. Ha isn’t a shirker in the a&use of setting tint deliberately to avoid his duty to the State and the Empire, He is athletic, keen about things happening at n:s own door and concerned, according to liia dim and paltry light, about tbe future of his country. But his patriotism carries him no further than the suburbs of Sydney or Melbourne aud finds no inspiration beyond his own sordid politics.” With all this, ib is nob enrpiising to learn that recruiting is languishing, that such eloquent appeals to the hearts and souls of the people as Sir Ernest Sbackletoo made when passing through Sydney fell od deaf ears and

that what remains of the virile manhood of the great island continent is shocked and ashamed. Australia is writing a page of its history which will make sad reading for its future generations. REDUCED RAILWAY SERVICES. It is reported now, apparently with no more authority than can be obtained from current rumours, that the railway economies which have been foreshadowed for some time past will include the discontinuance of one of the expresses on each of the trunk lints, the reduction of suburban services to the trains regularly used by workers and the abolition of all race and Bhow excursions. The discontinuance of Iho second expresses and of supeifluous suburban trains has been generally exp?cted | but it has bsea though', since the General Manager’s st-itemsnt on the subject, that the excursion trains would continue to run with Ve fares raised to the ordinary rate* till ii was shown they were unprofitable under this arrangement, There still is talk of an all-round increase in farep, and a month or two ago the Minister mentioned this as a possibility, but it is believed now that tbe abolition of excursion and concession fares ie all tho authorities had in their minds, and that the ordinary charges will nob be disturbed for the present. WAH AND SPORT

Racing in war time is not being so eagerly discussed in Wellington as it appears to be in Christchurch, perhaps because the sporting element in the community is more widely distributed in the North than it is in the South ; but there is a pretty general feeling that the Racing Clubs, which are not money-making concerns, may ba trusted to settle the matter between themselves and with the Government on fair and reasonable lines. Racing men, owners and trainers of horses that is, are offering no seiious objection to the proposal tocoDfine the sport during war time to the-principal courses, but such an arrangement would not find favour with the country people in the North Island who, much more than the country people ia the South, make their local race meeting one of their few annual holidays and celebrate it rather as a day of rest and recreation than a saturnalia of gambling. But even these people are displaying no great interest in tbe matter for the present. They will be content to await the recommendations of the Racing Conference and then to see how they are affected by them.