WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 December 1920, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THREATENED HOLIDAY STH L'E. COOKS AND STEWARDS. (Our Special Correspondent). < WELLINGTON, Dec. 20. At the time of writing ropresentn- , tives of tho parties are conferring over , the questions in dispute between the shipping companies and the cooks and stewards, and holiday makers intending to make use of tho coastal steamers during tho next few weeks are. awaiting

the result with the keenest anxiety j The ferry steamers have been fully ( i ■booked up” for weeks past and given , the necessary facilities-the exchange of ( visitors between the North and South , Islands easily would constitute a re- • cord. But so far this prospect instead , of being an incentive to the cooks and stewards to remain at their poses, seems to have operated in a precisely opposite direction. The men see in the . holiday season an opportunity to as- 1 sort their claims with greater force than they could command at any other time, and may not be easily uissuaded from exorcising this nc.lvnntage. A HOPEFUL VIEW.' It is known, however, that a eousidrable proportion of the men —some people think a majority of them —are averse to carrying their own grievances or the grievances of their fellows to the length of a strike. The stewards, at anv rate, depend for a substantial

part of their earnings upon the goodwill of the public, expressed in “tips,” ami a strike at the present, juncture would materially affect this source of income, not merely temporarily but as long ns the resulting inconveniences were remembered. Of course there would be no insuperable difficulties in running the ferry steamers with makeshift cooks and stewards, but if anything of the sort were attempted the seamen and firemen also would go out and there would bo no saying where the trouble would end. But at the moment those anxious for peace are taking an opti-

mistic view of the situation. SECONDARY EDUCATION. The Minister of Education has discovered a secondary school in Canterbury that lias so loaded its curriculum that it cannot properly instruct 100 pupils with six teachers. Air Parr has suggested the real cause of the trouble is that the school is attempting to do to much. Among the twenty-six subjects it is teaching are magnetism and electricity, indexing and filing, office routine and commercial law, shipping and insurance, mechanical drawing and building construction, navigation, telegraphy and astronomy. The Minister realises that six teachers are too few to

cover all the ground and makes mildly merry at their attempt to do so. But Mr Parr’s critics in turn say tile whole fault lies with the heads ot the Department under the Minister's immediate control who hold fast to discredited methods that are seriously impairing the standard of education in tho country. THE HOUSING PROBLEM.. The Prime Minister has the cares and troubles of too many State Departments pressing hardly upon him just now to allow him to become intimately acquainted with the conditions of any -if them. Speaking at the opening of the Y.ALC.A. Hostel here on Saturday he mentioned as if it were a rare experience that he had seen that day a man who was the head of one of three families living in one house in the suburbs. This was a very shocking state oi affairs, lie said Uy way of comment, but he believed the authorities were overtaking the trouble. People in closei contact with the facts took a less cheerful view of the situation. They maintain that the overcrowding <.f families is worse now than it ever has been before and that it is only the warmer weather which has lessened the appearance of discomfort.