WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 August 1918, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

COAL FAMINE. HOARD OF TRADE REPORT. (Our Special Correspondent) WELLINGTON, Aug 12. The report by the Board of 'trade up on the coal supply of ’Wellington has not brought much comfort to the sorely tried housewives of the city. It merely confirms what the Minister ot Supplies, the lion. A. M. Myers, and the Minister of Mines, the Hon. \\ . 0. S. Macdonald, have been telling the public for some months past. There is a very real shortage of coal through out the country and the shortage is affecting Wellington more acutely than ii is affecting any of the other large centres, owing to its distance from the source of supply. lignite slack is placed on the trucks ai the Waikato mines at As. a ton, hut the rail carriage t<> Wellington amounts to 15s (id ton and the loss in transit from one cause and another is Is (id a toil. Jt. is’ plain that neither the merchants nor the retailers-are making excessive proji;s, but it is equally plain that the con xumers are getting poor value for their monev. THE ABSENT MINISTERS.

It is being assumed in some quarters that owing to the improved war outlook the return of Mr. .Massey and Sir .'Joseph Ward to the Dominion will be delayed and that the session of Parliament-expected to open in October will not he graced by the presence of the party leaders, at any val e during its earlier stages. Ihe Ministers here, of course, are very reticent in regard to the matter, as they naturally are on all matters concerning tlie movements of the travellers, Licit appears Lo he no good ground, for supposing that the return of t'ic* leaders will he postponed on account of what happened on the \*estovn Front, during the hist week or two. The magnitude of tin* Allies’ success need not he under-rated, hut it is not likely to lead to the long desired peace conference this year and noising less could keep Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph "Ward away. TH F PRO 111 Id TI ()X -0 A -51 PA 1G X

The promoters of the prohibition campaign for a referendum on the proposal of the National Efficiency Board to buy out the liquor trade profess to he confident of obtaining a petition to Parliament which will be far away the biggest thing of its kind seen in the Dominion. The groat petition for the extension ol the Parliamentary vole to women bore between 30,(100 and -10,000 signatures. The petition, if the expectations of the promoters of the movement are realised, will hear at least 300.000 signatures and probably -'IOO,OOO. The electors here, however, have not yet grown enthusiastic over the matter. Had the campaign been launched immediate! !v after the presentation of the Board’s report it would have had a

better chance of success than it lias now, six o’clock closing having very naturally lessened the “horrid examples” that were inclining the public towards the still more drastic r - On m. THE GERMANE’ JOKE. Though the discovery of the four supposed German escapees under one of the buildings at Somes Island has set Wellington laughing at the joke the men played upon the authorities it has ii"! restored public confidence m the methods adopted to secure „ the

safe custody of interned enemy subjects. The official report upon the: last escapade of the kind, in which ' one prisoner, deserted by his comrades in ail attempt to reach the land was drowned, has not yet readied the Minister; Imt there is a feeling abroad that the British way of “doing good to your enemies” has led to a certain amount of laxity which might easily he attended hv serious consequences both to tlie prisoners, themselves and to the community. However, in a mutter of this kind a jest with the laugh against the authorities may <!' more than a tragedy to mend matters ami already it is announced the guard has been strengthened.