WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 July 1919, Page 1

WELLINGTON NOTES.

PRICE REGULATION.

POSITION OF BOARD OF TRADE

(Our Special Correspondent)

WELLINGTON, July 28.

The cable from Sydney, published on Saturday, to the effect that the Necessary Commodities Committee was he big revived in the Mother Slate in the hopes of staying the continued advance in prices, has led the Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald to make a statement concerning the positions and functions cf the Board of Trade. The Board, l.e

said, was being criticised in some quarters for not regulating prices in this country, but as a matter of fact it had no authority to go to this length. Itcould make racommendations to the Minister for submission to the Cabinet, but there its power ended, except, of course, to support its recommendations by facts and arguments. The Board, however, had done a great deal of very useful work, in obtaining information and inducing manufacturers, merchants, ant! retailers to modify their demands. COST OF LIVING.

The Board of Trade and the Government, Mr MacDonald went on to say, were not quarrelling as to which of them was entitled to the credit or tlio discredit of what happened in the Dominion during the last five years, but it «as unfair to cast blame upon either of them without a full knowledge of the f; cts. They both, lie thought, might take some credit for the fact that New Zealand, with the single exception of India, was the country that had suffered least from the tide of rising prices. This statement was made on the authority of Professor Irving Fisher of Vale University, who in a recent address to the American Economic Association quoted the advances in every country of any consequence, affected by the war.

ELECTORAL REFORM. The advocates of proportional representation are attempting to set up sonif kind of organisation to compel the attention of the Government and of candidates for Parliamot to the need for electoral reform in the immediate future. So far their success has not been so encouraging as they had hoped it would he, chiefly owing, they think, t.) the abesnee of the party leaders and

to Hie uncertainty of their attitude towards the question. But Mr George

Hogben, the retired secretary of the Education Department, and other .■!>.- thusiasts arc keeping the subject alive, end the “horrid examples” furnished by the last election at Home, of the

injustice and inefficiency of the present system of choosing representatives arc giving them many “shockers” by which they ultimately should he able to arrest the attention of an indifferent public. THE POLITICAL SITUATION. Though the impending arrival of the I

Party Leaders continues to provide abundant material for political gossip there is nothing further to report in regard to the general situation. The Hon. W. D. S. MacDonald’s allusion ;o 111 amendment of the Regulation of Trade and Commerce Act to be introduced next session may be taken to mean that the Party truce will he maintained

t least for a time after the meeting of arliameut. This would he in accordu.f with the predictions of tile “best inirmcd ” authorities that have expres;1 any opinion on the subject. But

truce or no truce private members on both sides of the House will exercise a great deal more independence than they rid during the course of the war, and it is not unlikely some of the Ministers will find great difficulty in disguising their Party leanings. The .session presents many possibilities.