WELL NOTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 December 1917, Page 4

WELL NOTON NOTES.

DEFENCE MATTERS. MAROONED SOLDIERS. (Our Special Correspondent) \Vellix«tox, Dec 24. In view of recent happenings it is not surprising that the general public as well as the men immediately concerned are disposed to be a little critical of even minor matters connected with the administration of the Defence Department. At the moment particular fault is being found with the Department’s lack of method and foresight in making arrangements for the conveyance by rail and steamer of the men who are being sent out of camp for the Christmas holidays.

Scores of soldiers have been shut out of the ferry boats going south, and so deprived of a big slice of their holiday, to say nothing of the cost of lodging in Wellington, through the failui‘3 of the military authorities to take such ordinary precautions as would have occurred to the organisers of a Sunday school picnic or a friendly society’s carnival. Men are still here waiting for transport who came into town four or five days ago and the shipping people declare had they been properly advised there need have been not a single hour’s delay.

THE WHEAT SCHEME. The Hon W. T). S. MacDonald’s official statement concerning the “ Wheat Scheme” by which the price of flour has been kept down and a substantial increase in the area sown with wheat secured, is a frank reply to the criticism by which he and his colleagues have been assailed in connection with this matter during the last few months.-. The Minister lias withheld nothing that is essential to a proper understanding of the position. Apparently when Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward were in London, where it was impossible to advise them fully of the critical nature of the situation, there was some delay in giving effect to the decision of the Cabinet here and this may have affected the price the Domiuiou ultimately had to pay for its supplies, but once a line of action was determined upon it seems to have been followed promptly and to the best advantage. Even if the Government has not accomplished the impossible by entirely satisfying the growers, the millers, the bakers and the consumers, it at least has assured the country against a wheat famine during the next twelve months.

six -o’clock CLOSIN'!

Though the hotel-keepers for the most part are accepting the results of six o’clock closing philosophically they have not yet experienced the recovery in their trade they were promised by their optimistic friends. Business was a little better last week, particularly in the bottle department, but this is attributed to the approach of the holidays and it may be continued during Christmas week. But the majority of the city licensees are now satisfied that their sale will be permanently reduced in normal times by from 25 to 30 per cent by the shorter hours and that the reduction in the country licensed houses will be much larger. The advocates of the experiment profess to be well pleased with the results and are even inclined to give the publicans credit for having observed the law much more closely than they expected. Probably the police should share in this compliment, but it is a matter of general remark that the bars are cleared very promptly.

CHRISTMAS TRADE. The Wellington shop-keepers, reaping the year ronnd a rich harvest, from the military camps and the varions activities connected with the war, are probably mncli more fortunate than the business people in other centres of the Dominion, but their reports upon the Christmas trade, which was at its height on Saturday, are entirely satisfactory. Last Christmas there appeared to be an inclination on the part of buyers to spend their money more varily, to eschew costly presents and rich apparel and confine their gifts lo immediate triends, but this year purchasers have been as lavish as ever in their expenditure and as bonnteons in their distribution of seasonable offerings. This lias not lessened the donations to patriotic and charitable funds and being, according to passing philosophy, a sign of the city’s prosyerity only the cynics are left to complain.