WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 June 1921, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE CENSORSHIP AGAIN. n —— t MORE EXPLANATIONS. p v (Our Special Correspondent;. „ WELLINGTON, June 24 c The Acting Prime Minister has not f been his own tactful self in his at- ( tempts to extricate himself and his colleagues from the invidious position into which they were landed by the unauthorised revival of the censorship. First he excused the revival on the score of necessity, and hoped for the ■ cheerful compliance of the public; then he alleged a mistake had been made by some unhappy telegraph official in Christchurch, and now he is implying the blame for what has happened shodfld be cast upon Sir Joseph Ward, who was Postmaster-General during the War Ministry. The whole truth of the matter seems to be that in his baste Sir Francis Bell assented to an order which his own good common sense should have condemned. Again Mr Massey’s tight hand on a very’young and very inexj periencecl team has been sadly missed. PUBLIC ACCOUNT KEEPING. Tlie broaches of trust by civil servants, which were commented upon by Mr Justice Hoskiugs at Wanganui the other day, have been engaging the anxious attention of the executive ol the Civil Service‘Association for some time‘past. The executive suggests fio excuses for the defaulting officials, but urges that a better system of bookkeeping should he instituted in all the j public departmtnts. People qualified to speak on matters of this kind, who have had opportunities to inspect the State system of account keeping, declare it to he among the most cumbersome, j involved anti inaccurate the uninstruetc<l mind could devise. Any private ! trader finding himself in the baiikI ruptev court after keeping his accounts in the fashion countenanced by the Civil Service Commissioner, these critics say, would be in danger of having . his discharge delayed for a year or two ; even if he escaped a criminal prosecution. It is understood the responsible Minister is now looking into these -al

legations. EXPORT STATISTICS

The Wellington Harbour Board is still protesting loudly against the injustice

done to tlie port it controls by the piesont. system of compiling the export statistics. It was stated by Mr G. Mitchell, M.P., at the meeting of the Hoard on Wednesday that £10,000,009 worth of goods shipped at Wellington wore credited to other ports as part ol their exports and that tlie capital city

instead of being given its proper position as easily the first shipping centre

in the Dominion was relegated to a se

condary place. This, as already explained. arises from the statutory provision that exports must be credited t<: the districts in winch they, are produced and not to the port from which they an shipped. The secretary of the Board has extracted from the Government Statistician a promise that the position will he explained in future issues of the Year Book, hut this does not satisfy the Board, nor the community it represents, ami the local authorities will keep on kicking. A GRAVE POSITION. Mr R. A. Wright, the new Mayor of Wellington, made his promised statement concerning the financial position of the city last night and it was not verv cheering. There was, he said, a bank overdraft of C 334.203, against which there was no set off except the provision for the payment of interest. The bank manager had declared it was impossible-for the bank to continue the present accommodation and tbeie "as no money to be bad till the rates came in. Mr Wright is a confirmed pessimist, in this respect being the very opposite of Sir John Luke, his predecessor in office, and, as may lie imagined, his story was a very gloomy one indeed. Ho had seen tlie Acting Prime Minister in search of advice as to “a way out ol the morass,” but Sir Francis Bell thought the only thing that could lie done' was to raise a half million loan to pay off the growing overdraft. Still Wellington will keep its head above water and ultimately reach the secure shore.