WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 June 1920, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

(Our Special Correspondent). DRY AMERICA. EFFECT IN NEW ZEALAND. WELLINGTON, June 9. The contending parties in the liquor campaign here express widely different views as to the probable effect of a “ dry ” America upon the next licensing poll in New Zealand. The Moderates profess to he relieved by the prospect of the experiment being tried in the United States. “ There is time enough before the next poll in the Dominion,” one of their leaders said this morning, 1 ‘ for tlio States to demonstrate to the whole <vorld that prohibition is impracticable and to save this country from committing the same egregious blunder.” This authority spoke with every appearance of absolute sincerity. The Prohibitionists, on the other hand, declare that the decision of the law courts in America has sealed the fate of the liquor trade in New Zealand as effectually as it would had it been pronounced by the electors of the Dominion. They will not relax their efforts to secure success, but they will pursue them with redoubled assurance of ultimate victory.

THE BALLOT PAPER. One of the main efforts of the Prohiiutionists between this and the next poll, it was gathered while ascertaining their views concerning the news from America, will be directed towards securing what they call a " clean ” ballot paper. They have no rooted objection to. State Control ” appearing on the ballot paper as an alternative issue, so long as it is made really alternative, and not employed as a device for defeating Prohibition as it was, they maintain, last December. This means, presumably, they would accept the three issues, Continuance, Prohibition and State Control, provided they were submitted to the electors under a system of preferential voting and each issue in the country pitted against each other issue. It is doubtful, hjowever, if the Government would .agree to an arrangement of this kind. For one tiling, it would commit Ail’ Massey and his colleagues to the principle of preferential voting, and that is a development the Prime Minister at present is not regarding with much favour. PILLAGING. For some time-past the amount of pillaging going on at .the Wellington wharves has been an absolute scandal, and from inquiries made, yesterday it would seem that in spite of all the precautions taken by the linns and individuals immediately concerned the evil continues to grow. It has been estimated that the total losses sustained by tlie shipping companies and the importers at all the ports in New Zealand, of which Wellington is notoriously the worst in this respect, amounts to £40,000 or .£50,000 a year, but a merchant seen yesterday said'the larger of these figures was far below the murk. In his own experience the losses amounteu to fully 2 per cent on the value of the goods imported) and in the long run became a definite charge upon the consumers who had to pay the cost of increased freights and additional insurance. No one seems ready with a remedy. The shipping' companies doubtless fiiicl it more convenient to insure themselves agajnst loss than to institute prosecutions, and so the pillaging is passed on to the cost of living.

RECKLESS DRIVING. The remarks made by the Coroner yesterdav at the conclusion ot

quest on the victims of the Sanson motor collision should move the authorities to take some effective steps to stop the reckless driving so prevalent throughout, the whole of the Wellington province. In Wellington city the peril is almost as common as it ,is in the country districts, and yet unless an accident with very serious results occurs a prosecution for excessive speed is of the rarest occurrence. Cars are habitually driven in the streets at speeds varying from fifteen to thirty miles an .hour .and along the country roads a driver must lag behind unless he travels at forty miles an hour or more. On occasions, particularly in journeying to race meetings and similar gatherings, fifty miles an hour is by no means an uncommon speed maintained for considerable distances. Where are the police ?

PILLAGING. SOME ASTOUNDING FIGURES. . WELLINGTON, June 11. The local newspapers are waking up to the fact that Wellington has earned a very evil notoriety among the ports of the Dominion through the amount of pillaging that goes on along its waterfront. The V Post ” last evening quoted some astounding figures it had obtained from the shipping companies and consignees, showing the amount of thieving from five sugar cargoes unloaded here between November 26th and January 17th, a period of litllle more than seven weeks. The total “short delivered,” to use the euphemistic phrase employed in business circles, from tile five vessels was .197 seventy pound bags and 170 one hundred and forty pound bags, a total of 37,590 pounds, or just upon 17 tons. It seems almost incredible that a thief could get away with a 140 pound bag of sugar without being detected by one or other of the watchers employed to prevent such happenings, but the facts are established beyond a shadow of doubt, and it is only on the rarest occasions a pilferer, probably a little less astute than his fellows, is brought to hook. MORE CONVENIENT HAULS.

While tliieves are walking off the ships and across the wharves with 140 pound bags of sugar, it is not surprising less daring operators are lifting pounds of tobacco and small boxes of tea. It is a significant fact that as the prices of these smaller articles rise in price, the number of thefts increase. The advance in the price of tobacco was followed immediately by an increase in the amount of pillaging and the advance in the price of tea produced a similar result. One shipping company has had to pay six claims amounting altogether to over £250 for “ short-delivered ” tea during the last few months, and has not succeeded in one of the thieves. The shipping companies, of course, insure themselves against these losses and the consignees recover from the shipping companies, but the cost of insurance, represented by the increased freight, is

.inevitably passed on to the consumer in one shape or another, so that in the end it is the community thjat is being robbod. SOLDIER SETTLEMENT. .There is a growing feeling here, and doubtless in other parts of the Dominion, that the Government’s well-inten-tioned soldier settlement schemes are not progressing so well as all but the most churlish of political partisans would wish. The “ New 1 Zealand Times,” referring to the matter tin’s morning in the course of a notice of the Hon. G. J. Anderson’s address to his constituents, reiterates a good deal ot what was stated by members of the deputation from the R.S.A. that waited upon Mr Massey'the other day. “ Tho Hood of expenditure on tho purchase of private estates,” it says among other ' things, ‘‘has caused a boom, which has alarmed the public and frightened into considerable perplexity the Government, which ought to luiVe foreseen the result of its ill-considered expenditure.” The Minister’s answer to this indictment is that the land purclUased for soldiers’ settlement was acquired at its productive value and that a vast majority of the . men are satisfied with the provision made for them. " MILK. Though the milk distribution scheme of the Wellington City Council has been subject to a good deal of criticism, it has come through the ordeal of failing supplies and advancing prices with very considerable credit. Lately, however, sonip of the outlying districts having been placed upon short commons have had to supplement tli;eir supplies with condensed milk, and now the retail price for this article has been jumped up two T pence a tin. Inquiries made yesterday revealed the fact that the Board of Trade on April Ist had authorised an advance in the wholesale price from 38s to 40s a case, equal to o'ne half-penny a tin. This'is,now followed by an advance of twopence a tin the retail prioo, and while the manufacturers put forward good reasons for their increase, in the 300 per cent increase in the price of tinplates and the substantial increase in the price of milk, the retailers, so far, have nothing to say.'