WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 25 May 1917, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

Departmental Ballot.

Ihe Railway Ken

(Our Special Correspondent.)

Wellington, May 21 Another trouble, probably a comparatively small one, has overtaken tbe Railway Department. At a recant sitting of the Military Appeal Board the Assistant General Manager announced that the Department had held a ballot of the men in iis service who had been called up in the official ballot and who could be spared and had decided in this way which of them should go into camp. The various branches of tbe men’s Uoion are to this method of selection, which has no legal i-aiction. and a number of protests are being sent to tbe Department and the Appeal Board. Of coirse, the men st 11 have the right of appeal to their district boards, but they feel their position has been prejudiced by the action of the Department; in discriminating between its employees without giving them an opportunity to be beard. national efficiency. From hints that have been dropped hers and there it eesmi that a great deal of criticism that ha* been heaped upon the National Efficiency Board should have bsen directed against the National Government. It is no secret that the Board has submitted a number of reports and recommendations to the Government, but so far as the public is concerned there has been much Doise and labour without any taDgibe result. People have been urged in a la'her half-hearted fashion to grow potatooa and other vegetables ia preparation for a poaaibie shortage of other foodstuffs, bet beyond this practically nothing has besn done to maintain the budding enthusiasm for a national effort. It is suggested the Government is waiting for the return of Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward before disclosing its scheme, but the necessity for the delay is not explained. A KNOTTY PROBLEM This week the Efficiency Board is going to enquire into the suggestion for curtailing the hours of the liquor trade during the course of the war, but as the Acting Prime Minister has stated that nothing can be done in this direotion without the authority of Parliament expressed in legislation probably a good deal of time will be occupied, and perhaps temper expended, to little purpose. The Cabinet is divided, as the Acting Prime Minister has admitted, on the question of shortening tbe hours of tale and probably if it weie again submitted to a vote of tbe House a majority wonld deoide for tbe maintenance of the status quo. Tbß argument that there is no need in New Zialand to follow the example of tbe Mother Country io this matter may not he strikingly convincing, but people who hsve counted heads declare that in Parliament it will prove effective. SHORTAGE OF SHIPPING, Basinet men here, while not taking a pessimistic view of the situation, admit that the continued reduction of transport facilitips may have a serious effect upon the trade of the country. They are cb’efly concerned, of course, over the shorage of shipping, which ia bringing about a grave congestion of produce in store and to gome extent discouraging farmers in their operations. The Chairman of the Bunk of New Zealand, in the course of an interview on Saturday, said that unless some relief were found shortly the ontlcok would be grave in the extreme] Against this there is tbe assurance of the Hon A. M. Myera that tbe ton®

nags difficulty will be cleared np “ n a few months',” but the difficulty will become more acute during these few months and at tbe moment there is a distinct feeling of unea-iness in both commercial and agricultural circles.