WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 19 September 1921, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE SPRINGBOK TOUR. UN FORTUNATE HA PPENINGS. (Our Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, Sept. 1(1 New Zealand Rugby football has not been turning its best side to London or to any other part of the world during the visit of the doughty Springboks to this country. At the very outset of the tour linin' was an unseemly controversy in the newspapers over the selectors’ choice nl a team to represent flu- Dominion in the first test. The visitors well may have been astonished at this travesty ol the high traditions of tile game by a community that claimed in contain its leading exponents. Next came the stories in connection with the second test. They may not have been line in their worst aspect, but they were made possible by happenings which the controlling authorities at least could have discountenanced. Then there was the Nelson succession of inexcusable blunders, the lasi straw to Hie back of tbe South African camel, as tbe Springbok manager, more in soriow than in anger.

confessed. Filially, every follower ol the game lias been shamed by the circulation of a tale imputing to the visitors a breach ol good laste ol wll j i -1 1 they all have shown themselves utterly incapable. ’inefficient workers.

One of the unfortunate features of the iineinplo,'inent trouble in Wellington just now is the number of iiiefiieimit workers aiming tbe idle bands. Many of these unfortunate men. most of whom are described as labourers, seeking •'lieuvO' nr ■'light” work, as the ease inav he. hitherto have heel! employed 11 puli tlie dullest ol loutine jobs and have acquired little adaptability and no initiative. Jobs of this sort are the first to run out in time of stress, and their occupants the last to find employment in an overcrowded market. There are a thousand farm bands wanted in the Auckland province for tlit' milking season and not a dozen with the requisite rudimentary knowledge can be picked up aiming the unemployed in Wellington. Still more discouraging than this is the difficulty of finding on the register a man who can lie trusted to do more good than liann in the garden or to put up a rough fence in a hack yard. Ala n v a sympathetic householder lias discovered this to his cost by giving a day’s work to a matt sent to him from one of the relict offices. ('HEARING AND SHEARER From all accounts the shearers have chosen a very inoppottune time, even from their own point of view, to insist upon a higher rate ol pay than the Arhil ration Court has awarded them. The general secretary ol lire New Zealand Workers' Union, writing to the newspapers, says that the industry cannot afford to he held up and that he expects the sheep-owners "will he compelled to capitulate in a Jmmith’s time.” But this is by no means tbe view of the owners of small and moderate sized llorks in the Wellington district. Many of them, impelled by the financial stringency, have been arranging for weeks past to do their own shearing this year, with the co-opera-

tive assistance of their neighbours, and

are confident uf getting through without any sei intis difficulty. The owners of large flocks may have to pay the rates demanded by the men, and so tar justify .Mr Grayndler’s prediction: but

iheir number lias been decreasing year

by year, as the president of the Arbitration Court showed the other day. and even in their ease there will be a good deal of "free” labour available if tliev are pushed into a corner. PUBLIC expenditure. The Government is continuing to "retire" inoinhors from the civil service and to exercise minor economies

in its efforts to lessen the volume oi departmental expenditure, but it ballot. yet adopted any of the heroic measures urged upon it by its outside ad-vi-er:. It is rumoured, however, that wlii'n Mr Massey returns he will take

an early opportunity to announce a re duet ion in Ministers' and members salaries as a prelude to a substantia

in departmental pay. The Alinisie,s ou the spot have no statement to make on the siihj.et, and pro! ably the iv t: on th- Prime .Minister’s own statement in the House to the effort that should reductions become necessary tliev would begin at t Ho top am! cease some way from the bottom. Meanwhile the expenditure upon Parliament Buildings is attracting some attention from the critics, even the tolerant "Dominion” observing that

“the furnishing of the new rooms tippears to have cost a good deal oi money already.” Perhaps the Govern merit was committed to this expenditure before the slump came and if would mil mend mailers by disposing of the furniture at sale prices now.