WELLINGTON NOTES

Hokitika Guardian, 28 August 1918, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES

THE LABOUR POSITION. LITTLE WORK IN CITY. (Our Special Correspondent) WELLINGTON, Aug. 26. The Labour Bureau reported on Saturday that there was little work oflering for manual labour in the city and that of twenty-two applicants for employment who had left their names at the office during the previous week, only seven bad been placed. To-day there is an improvement and the officer in charge says lie could find work for “a few farm hands and others.” Against this, complaints are coming in from the country that competent farm hands are unobtainable and that even inexperienced men willing to learn are extremely difficult to get. No doubt the return of Spring will _ create _ a better demand for labour in the city> where much outside work has been interrupted or stopped altogether by the continuous wet weather; but this will only" accentuate the troubles ot the farmers, who mainly through the disinclination of young men to go into the country, rarely can find the number of men they ’could profitably em-

PI °TFIE NATIONAL PROHIBITION POLL. Though it may not have been exactly politic for a lender of the prohibition movement to announce that in the event of the proposal to place the three issues of continuance, prohibition and State Control on the ballot paper, without providing for preferential voting, his party would at once start an a rotation for prohibition without compensation on a large majority £oto, it is only natural there should be a very strong protest against the attempt to divide the friends of pro In )i----tion and State Control against one another and thus __ insure the carrying of continuance. Many electors in favour of State Control so a member of the prohibition party snvs to-day, while giving thenfirst’vote to their own particular remedy for the evils of the drink traffic, would give their second to prohibition and so insure it being counted against continuance. Probably there are many other State Controlists who would piefci- continuance to prohibition, but the friends of the latter issue evidently think a majority of the “middle-cours-ers” would be on their side d unable to obtain precisely what they wanted. MINERS AN I) MINE-OM N LRS.

The decision of the Government to appoint a Royal Commission to on quire into the dispute between the miners and mine-owners lias relieved the tension for the.moment, but till after the owners’ meeting here on Wednesday it will be impossible to say whether or not it will lead to an amicable settlement between the parties. Were it not for the war, probably the owners would rely upon the existing agreements to justify their refusal. to meet the men under any conditions, but the importance of preserving industrial peace in the present crisis may induce them to .re-consider their .. attitude. It is understood that several members of the Cabinet were inclined towards more drastic action in the matter, involving the assumption of the control of the mines bv the State; but in the absence of Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward, who it would appear from this morning’s cables, cannot be expected to return before the very end of next month, a majority of the Ministers were opposed to this step. CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS

Speaking on Saturday evening at a gathering of the Orphans’ Club, a social body that enjoys the patronage and conlidenee of the Covernor-Gen-eral and ministers, Sir James Allen spoke a piece concerning conscientious objectors. The most interesting statement- he made, was that the fourteen C.O’s deported and sent to France some time ago were now “fighting with their units.” Tie did not know how 1 tiheir conversion had been brought about, but it was a matter on which both they and the country were to be congratulated. The most puzzling eonscience he had discovered was that oi the objector who had never read the Bible nor entertained any religious convictions. He simply based the refusal to do his duty to the country on is own “opinions,” and of course Ids ease was hopeless. And yet he was typical of most of the men who claimed exemption on the score of conscientious scruples!