WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 September 1920, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE GIFT AEROPLANES

THEIR DISPOSITION. (Our Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, Sept. 15. The general impression that a syndicate formed in Timaru for the promotion of an air service between the South Canterbury capital and Mount Cook has been receiving undue favours in the distribution of the gift aeroplanes was voiced in the House of Representatives yesterday by Mr Witty, the member for Rieearton, and Mr Howard, the member for Christchurch South. Mr Witty asked the Minister of Defence if the report that the Government had presented several aeroplanes to the Timaru syndicate was true and if so would the Canterbury Aviation Company, with head-quarters at Sockburn, he equally well treated. Sir Heaton Rhodes replied that the machines had not been given or even lent to the syndicate. They had merely been sent to Timaru pending an agreement between the syndicate and the Air Board. Later in the day, replying to a similar question from Mr Howard, the Minister reiterated lii.s former statement. CONFLICTING AUTHORITIES It seems now that the disposal of the gift aeroplanes has been a matter of discussion between the Canterbury Company, tho Timaru syndicate and the Air Board For some time past, and that during the progress of the discussion the question has become a little confused. Last night, .some time after Sir Heaton Bliodes had answered the. questions in the House, the Hon J. G. Coates, the Minister in Charge of the Air Board, stated that the aeroplanes had been consigned to Timaru without his knowledge and that lie. had asked tho Board for a report upon their disposition. When he received this report lie would confer with Sir Heaton Bhodes, the Minister of Defence, on the sugject. Meanwhile he could promise th'e machines would hot be handed, over to the Timaru syndicate till the whole position had been fully, considered. ' LAND AND INCOME TAX.

Yesterday the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, which of late has been raising a loud remonstrating voice in tho criticism of public finance, unanimously adopted a motion demanding that the Government should set up a commission to report upon the incidence of taxation in the Dominion before proceeding further with the Land and Income Tax Amendment Bill. Several of tho speakers denounced the general tenor of the Bill, while others protested against individual clauses, declaring they were inequitable and a breach of faith with investors and traders. It is expected that Mr Massey will not he averse to tho appointment of a commission of inquiry, hut that ho will insist upon .getting the amount of revenue lie has estimated and will listen to no appeal for substantial reductions. THE TENURE BATTLE,

The report of the Lands Committeo on tiic Te Aroha Crown Leases Bill again was “talked out” in the House of Representatives yesterday. The Opposition, of course, came from the Liberal, Labour and Independent benches, Mr Lysnar, a semi-independent, being the only speaker among the Reformers. The contention of the member for Gisborne was that the conversion of -the Te Aroha leaseholds into freeholds, while freeing the State of'a had asset would not necessarily imperil the national endowments. But the combined Opposition stigmatised the proposal as the thin end ofi the wedge that was going to shatter the last fragments of the Ballauce-Seddon land policy, and announced its determination to exhaust every form of the House in its effort to avert this catastrophe. No doubt Mr Massey will discover some means of overcoming the obstruction, but meanwhile the leaseholders are putting up a sturdy fight.

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. REVIEWING ITS CONSTITUTION. WELLINGTON, Sept. 17. The statement made by Sir Francis Bell in the Upper House yesterday will relieve him and his colleagues in the Cabinet from the suspicion, which has been wide-spread in political circles bore, that they were conspiring with the reactionaries in both Houses for the removal of the Legislative Council Act of 1911 from the 'Statute Book. Sir Francis made it quite clear that he had no sympathy with Mr Gow’s motion towards this end and presumably he spoke for his colleagues as well as lor himself. He would not be a party, he said, tot legislation contrary to the principle of the Act of 1914, nor would lie remain a member of a Ministry which would make such legislation a Government measure. In face of this emphatic declaration it is impossible to believe the Prime Minister is coquetting with the reactionaries. FAVOURABLE TO REPEAL.

There can be no doubt, however, that there is an element in the Council, numerically strong, which would be very glad to see the elective principle so far as it threatens their occupancy of their comfortable seats, consigned to the limbo of discredited and forgotten things. It is safe to say that threefourths of the members of the present Council would not have the slightest chance of being confirmed in their positions by any system of popular election. The devotion of these members to the nominated system is not necessarily due to a sordid desire to retain their seats against the will of the people. In some cases, at any rate, it is due to an honest conviction that the Government’s prerogative of appointment is a desirable cog in the parliamentary machine, and that without it the country would be afflicted by a constant turmoil of legislative unrest.

THE PROGRESSIVE VIEW. Sir Francis Bell, however, is a safer guide in matters of this kind than are the gentlemen who are supporting Mr Gow’s motion for the repeal of the Legislative Council Act. Easily the most far-seeing member of the Cabinet he realises, as none of his colleagues does, that much of the social and industrial unrest afflicting the Dominion at the present time is duo to the sub-con-1 scions sense pervading the whole com-1 munity that its institutions are nob really representative of the

mass of tho people. Tho Legislative Council, as one of tho progressive members of that Chamber has put it, does not pretend to he representative of tho popular will, except so far as that will is represented by the head of the Government, who even if lie enjoys tho confidence of a majority of the electors to-day may he in a eery different position before the term of his nominees expires. All this contributes to the growing dissatisfaction with the existing state of affairs. TALKING AT LARGE. The looso fashion in which some members of the Council deal with matters of fact, which ought to he well within their knowledge, was exemplified again during the course of yesterday’s debate. Mr Gow in moving his resolution said tho operation of the Act lie wished to have repealed had been suspended at the instigation of Sir Joseph Ward, implying that the lato Liberal leader had been opposed to the elective principle and to proportional representation. The truth is that Sir Joseph was favorable to both these reforms, but objected to the method in which it was proposed to introduce them. Then Sir William Hall-Jones, who might have been expected to be more precise, argued that the Government’s “increased majority” at the polls of last December proved it had the confidence of the people. As a matter of fact, the Government was in a minority of 28,000 in the constituencies at the election of 1914 and in a minority of 129,000 at the election of 1919. *