WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 July 1920, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE DEFENCE POLICY. STILL INCUBATING. (Our Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, July 36. Some montliß before bis departure for London Sir James Allen was credited with being busy on the preparation of a now policy for bis successor at the Defence Office, but so far no trace of the promised heritage has been discovered. People who concern themselves about such matters are beginning to. suspect that Sir James, finding it tow great an undertaking for his own crowded hours, handed the task over to the Special Committee of Officers, of which whispers are heard occasionally, and that the members of this body are puzzling their heads to devise a scheme that will strike the happy mean between file big battalions they love and the little ones the public demand. Sir Heaton Rhodes’s appointment is a good augury for a sane solution of the problem. The new Minister wants security without extravagance and n sound system of training without militarism. The country wants the same things. AGRICULTURE AND IMMIGR ATION.

That the portfolios of Immigration and Agriculture should lie in one pair of hands seems quite an admirable arrangement,* in theory. The Minister who is looking after the rural industries of the Dominion ought to bo the very person to care for the immigrants landing on its shores. Rut at Hie moment the combination docs not appear to be working out very well in practice. Mr G. Mitchell, the member for Wellington South, who was interrogating the Hon W. Noswortliy on the subject the other day is not the only person who has heard complaints from recent arrivals. It is no answer to these complaints to say the High Commissioner’s Office has neglected to supply particulars of people it lias sent out here. Gross negligence at one end does not excuse stolid indifference at the. other. -•Canada is beating New Zealand in the competition for population because the bigger Dominion is doing the job well and the smaller one extremely badly. THE MINING DISPUTE.

The Miners’ Federation has presented an ultimatum- to the Prime Minister and the Coni Owners’ Association and will brook no delay beyond Monday night. Tile Federation wants Mr Massey to call a conference of four from each side, with himself as Chairman to settle the dispute between the parties, “along the lines followed at the drawing up of the National Agreement.” If Mr Massey is unable to preside, then the Federation will accept Mr P. Hally as Chairman, but it will allow neither of the gentlemen to exercise a. casting vote, and if these terms are not accepted, it will “take drastic measures to force tjie issue.” There is nothing very conciliatory about this and the men evidently are in deadly earnest, but it is hoped the Owners’ Association will agree to the conference if only to give the public an opportunity to ascertain the real nature of the differences between the parties. THE RACING CONFERENCE.

Though the racing conference which is sitting in Wellington this week is, concerning itself about many other matters connected with the national sport, the general public is chiefly interested in its proposals for the betterment of tlie lot ef the jockeys who with more or less unanimity have been in incipient revolt for the last six or seven moiUhs. Sir George Clifford, the President of the Conference ,has been handling the problem with great tact and has won to liis side the sympathy of most of the prominent professional riders, but his refusal to recognise the principles of trade unionism in connection with Hie sport has aroused the animosity of a number of irresponsible workers who are rendering the jockeys a very poor service by giving'a personal turn to the quarrel.