WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 September 1920, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

DEATH OF LIBERA L LEADER (Our Special Correspondent). .. - WELLINGTON, Sept. 1. The death of the Hon W. I). S. MacDonald, Leader of tho Liberal Party, is a painful shock to all members of the Legislature and to a. very wide circle of friends. Mr MacDonald had been in ill-health lor many months, and it was no secret that he had been doing his work under difficulties. He was compelled a few weeks ago to enter a. private hospital, where lie underwent a slight operation, and lie returned to his place in the House of Reps while his need of rest was still great. His death may have boon hastened by his devotion to duty. Mr MacDonald succeeded to the leadership of the Liberal Party in difficult days and he did not possess the brilliant parts of some of the men who had gone before him, hut his friends, who were to he found in all political parties and in every section of the community, knew that his inspiration was an earnest desire to do right, that his honesty of word and of purpose were above all question, and that his sturdy commonsense and his wide practical knowledge were of high value to his party and to his country. The people of Now Zealand coiild ill sparo him. THE BUTTER PROBLEM. It seems certain now that the retail price of butter from the beginning of next month will bo at least 2s 9d a pound and quite possibly as much as 3s a pound. The arrangements made between the Government and the Imperial authorities for passing into consumption a quantity of requisitioned butter remaining in store here has so far kept the price down to Is 9d, hut this source of supply will he exhausted by the end of the current month, and then the price set by the Imperial authorities’ purchase of the new season’s output at 280 s a hundred-weight will come into operation. Whether, this, taking tho retailers’ charges into account. will work out at 2s 9d or more remains to be seen. LAST STRAWS. Meanwhile there is very widespread dismay at the prospect of a rise of 60 per cent .or more in the price of dairy products, universally. regarded as among the most essential of the “necessaries of life.” The newspapers are being deluged with letters on the subject, Ministers are being bombarded with protests and the dairy farmers are being threatened with retaliatory measures. The price of milk, of course, is determined by the ; price of butter-fat and the Imperial authorities’ purchase means not only that the price of butter for local consumption will he enormously increased, but also that the price of milk will be raised in a similar ratio. Even at present prices many a hardly pressed housewife is scraping together as much as 12s or 15s a week for milk, and butter and the 60 per cent, increase will he the last straw in her hard lot. THE WORKERS’ THREATS. It was reported months ago that the workers on the Wellington wharves would refuse to handle butter for export if the local price of the commodity rose about 2s a pound. The officials of the men’s unions do not confirm’ this story, hut they are ready enough to recite a score of reasons why the price should not soar so high. The arguments are quaintly impracticable, but they certainly desire to get at the root of things. They claim, for instance, that the consumers in Wellington are paying the interest on the mortgages, sometimes ten or a dozen deep, on the Taranaki dairy farms and thus bearing the burdens which should belong to the land speculators and the profiteering landlords. The world’s market does not enter into their scheme of econo? mics. It rises superior to such trifles, THE GOVERNMENT’S ATTITUDE. As far as can he judged from his public utterances, Mr Massey has no intention of intervening between the dairy farmers and their good fortune. On returning from his last trip Home he let it be clearly understood he had no sympathy with schemes for reducing the price of butter at the expense of the producer alone. If there were any reduction at all it must be at the cost of the whole community. The contention was quite in accord with the teachings of the text books and no one was affronted or greatly perturbed when the farmers who had contributed to the Equalisation Fund were 'reimbursed from the Consolidated Fund. On this occasion, however, there seems likely to he no attempt to gild the pill of dear butter. It will have to be swallowed in all its nakedness and paid for accordingly.

COAL

NATIONALISATION AND CO-

OPERATION

AVELLINGTON, Sept. 3

The presentation of the State Coal Mines report in the House of Reps yesterday produced a very interesting discussion on mining matters generally in which nationalisation and co-operation came in for a good deal of attention. Nationalisation hitherto has been regarded as a party question, and so it probably will remain for some years to come, hut yesterday’s discussion disclosed a growing disposition on the part of many members of the House to, look favourably up.on r a system of cooperation in which the working miners would be assisted with capital and with the necessary railways. This view was not confined to the members of one party or another, but seemed to be the sense of a majority of those who were seeking for an effective solution of.tho, coal trouble. INCREASING SUPPLIES.

Mr Hudson, the member for Motneka whose constituency is now intimately associated with the mining in- . dustry, declared the coal output could be easily doubled and trebled by a judicious extension of the co-operative system. Ho advocated that when the Government constructed railways to tap new supplies it should debar speculators from acquiring the coal deposits and opening them up with paid labour. The field should be preserved for cooperative parties of, workers that would never go slow and while benefiting themselves would relieve the country from the constant nightmare of a coal shortage. Mr Witty and a number of other members spoke to a similar effect, Mr Lysnar adding State colliers- to the

cooperative service, amt the only diseor- ! dant note came from Mr Holland, who thought tho “syndicalist idea” would not work out to the advantage of the community. MEMBERS’ PAY. The Civil List Bill No. 2 providing for the increase of the salaries of members of the House from £3OO a, year to £450 a year, and the salaries of members of tho Council from £2OO to £3OO, came up for its second reading in the elected chamber last night and met, on the whole, with the favourable reception, that was to be expected. Some of' the more flippant members of the House would have their little jests about the measure, but even they said nothing likely to retard its passage on to the Statute Book. The general opinion of members appeared to be, indeed, that the proposed increases were rather too small than too large. Mr Wilford j suggested that the payment of members of the House should be raised to £SOO a year and that 10 per cent of this should be devoted to the establishment of a superannuation fund. Some, proposal of this kind may be made when the Bill j is in committee. OTHER SUGGESTIONS. During the debate it was suggested and endorsed from both sides of the House, that a salary and a secretary should be provided for the leader of the Opposition. This is no new idea, it having been mentioned again and again during the last twenty years, but when a Goverment gets firmly seated on the Treasury benches its members seem apt to forget the disabilities they suffered, themselves when sitting on the other side, of the House. The principle, however, has been accepted by other British communities and there seems no weighty reason, from the public point of view, why it should not be accepted here. Another suggestion was that the term of Parliament should be extended, Mr Field naming four years as a reasonable period, but a majority of the members were not anxious to commit themselves to an expression or opinion on this delicate subject.