WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 September 1917, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

SECOND DIVISION. THE MINISTERIAL ATTITUDE. (Our Special Correspondent) WeT.I.IXGTON, Sept 21. “ Unless the proposals ot' the Government are framed on just and liberal lines the Government must face the prospect of a severe rebnif. This is what the “ Dominion ” had to say on Saturday concerning the demands of the members of the Second Division for adequate pensions for themselves and sntiicient allowances for their dependants, and it expresses the opinion of mod people who are in a position to judge of the temper of the House of Representatives.

A majority of the members of the House are pledged, more or less directly, to support the underlying principles of the Second Division’s demands, and if the Government attempts to put them oil with any cheese-paring scheme it will meet with a good deal more determined opposition than it has yet encountered.

It is being deducted from the j Prime Minister's allusion in the* House last week to an increase of j some .0700,000 in the Estimates that j an addition of 12/ or 1 •:>/ a week to the wife’s separation allowance is all the Government has in contemplation and this certainly would satisfy neither the members of the Second Division nor their representatives in Parliament. IX AX HEROIC MOOP. The House has accepted with such grace as it could master the dictum of the Govern men! in regard to other Inaucial matters. It has consented to expenditure it has not understood and it lias coniirmed taxation it has not approved, lint it is going to have a mind of its own on the provision that should he made for soldiers’ dependants. “If we can litid £•100,000 or £1)00,000 a year to provide bonuses for civil servants on account of the increased cost 1 of living,” one member puts it, “surely we can find throe or four times that amount, if needs he, to lessen the sacrifices we are demanding from the wives and children of the men we are sending away to discharge the obligations of our country.”

This expresses the new spirit that is pervading the House, not, it is only fair to sav, ns a result of any pressure that may have been brought to bear upon members by the Second Division League, but rather as the result of a better understanding of the position

the high Com missionek's oreici-

Mr 0. .1. l’arr, the member for Eden, who returned from bis trip Home with the Parliamentary party in a somewhat disgruntled frame of mind, initiated a discussion in the House on Friday afternoon on the High Commissioner's oilice which took a. turn lie scarcely can have expected. If is objections to the oilice were that it had become ‘“Anglicised,” that there were too many elderly gentlemen enraged there and that it was not sufficiently in touch with New Zealand.

The Hon D. Hudilo agreed with Mr Purr as to the advisability of appointing young New Zealanders to the office whenever feasible and Dr Thacker suggested that preference should be given-to wounded soldiers, but the half dozen speakers that followed, including the Hon G. W/ Russell. bore high testimony to the excellent work done by Sir Thomas Mackenzie and his staff, Mr C. IT. Poole paying a specially appreciative tribute to Mr Donne. The High Commissioner himself would have listened to the discussion with very considerable persona 1 grat i lien t ion. IM’CI.IC SERVICE CONTROL. ] t is not so very long ago that the control of the public service was a bone of very serious contention between the political parties, the Liberals standing for ministerial responsibility and the Reformers for commissioner supremacy, and members of the House were reminded of the former strife on Friday night by Mr Witty asking the Minister of Internal Affairs when the Commissioner’s term of office would expire. Mr Russell, who before the party truce was one of the foremost champions of ministerial responsibility, in the course of his reply referred in such commendatory terms to the good work done by the Commissioners that Mr McCnlluin was moved to object to the Minister “attacking the Liberal Party.” Mr Russell retorted in kind, but it appeared when his remarks were summed up that his appreciation of the Commissioners rested mainly on the fact that they had relieved Ministers of a vast amount of disagreeable work and left them free to attend to their more important duties. He wished to make no reflections upon the methods that had preceded their appointment.

RESTRICTION OF motet. HOURS

It was expected that the bill restricting hotel hours, which passed ■through the House last week with such sensational developments, would make its appearunr-e in the Legislative Council to-morrow, assured of a favourable reception from a majority of the members of the revising chamber; but the Prime Minister’s promise to a deputation of licensees that waited upon him on Friday that the measure would be referred to the Statutes Revision Committee may delay its further progress for a day or two. There is no probability of the essentia) provision of the Bill being modified, but it is possible in view of the facts placed before "Mr- Massey by the deputaton that an effort may be made to grant licensees who happen to be owners of the houses they occupy some measure ot relief. It is difficult to see how this is to be dono without, introducing tlu* element of compensation, hut it is certain that without some provision ot tile kind individual owners will find themselves in very sore financial straits.