WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 October 1921, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE PRIME MINISTER'S OPTIMISM. PROPHECY FULEILIjED (Special to “Guardian.”)

WELLINGTON, October IE His refreshing optimism was allowed its full lient in the after luncheon speech the Prime Minister delivered to the members of the New Zealand Chib yesterday. It suffused the whole political, commercial and industrial landscape and lit on eveiv dark place along the | e.s-fimist’s drab I'ol'it'.'m. liis prophecy concerning wool had been reali-ed money was mine plentiful, trade was reviving and the people were getting back to work with their coats oil. All this was cheering news, and happily it was not without some foundation. Wool prices really were rising. the money market was easier, imports "vie coining down while exports were goingup. and the count ry was facing its difficulties with a stout heart. The improvement in tlie value of wool is at (lit- moment, the most acceptable item in this agreeable budget of good eiieei. If Mr Massey’s information is correct and lie lias it. he says, on the best authority—the upward tendency will continue and belli materially ton aids the restoration of normal conditions.

•‘SAVINGS.” |pi ter in tin- afternoon, speaking in the House of Reps., the Prime Minister announced Hint he had received a report from Ilf Treasury showing that .‘the saving and reduction in expenditure up to the present time” consisted of salaries and wages 1)202,000. other services C 70.1.000. subsidies on Hour and hotter £(’,20.(100 and saving in interest and sinking fund by using nrdimuv revenue instead 'if burrowed money £889,000. a total of 02.112.0110. \n ardent .and precise eenmmiist might he inclined to cavil at the inelusion of the discontinued butter and Hour subsidies and I,ut the reduction of salaries and wages and ‘’other services” by nearly a million a year looks like a genuine achievement. File only q ihhle assailing these items is that the saving of salaries and wages will he absorbed for some time to come by the. payment of retiring allowances. However, that economy means a permanentsaving of £7.1.000 a mouth on the wages and service sheets, it is a very fair beginning.

TOTAHSATOR PERMITS. Yesterday ‘ the Minister of Internal Affairs in reply to a question nut to him by Ml Horn. Hie member for Wakatipu. made a statement in the House , oncoming the issue of totalisutor peimts which is not being regarded as a good augury for the acceptance of tlie Racing Commission's report in its present form. The lion. W. Downie Stew,ill stated that as a decision oil till' subject might ii"! la t :: deal tor some time, it had been decided that permits would lie issued as ill former years to

Ini- ; revior-lv holding them up till (|, eond of January next. This means practically that tlie Commission’s report will have no i-il’i i l during the present season and that even those I'.nmeetings which the members ol th:' Commission considered siiliertluous or j limlesinilde will iviiiiiii. undisturbed. , This is a distinct score lor tliose lm-oi-hers of the House who have taken t‘ r parochial view that, their own district meetings must lie preserved at any ,-ost. Perhaps in the end Mr Mas.scy ' may range himself and his forces on the \ side of tlie report, but at tlie moment he is not inspiring the race reform :s witli Xuiii'li confidence. | -‘THE IMG UNION”. I In anticipation of the Prime M blister s ! stalemeiil in regard lo the business of I the Imperial Conference the galleries

j were crowded last night and the priviI lcged visitors had no occasion to complain of the fare provided for them, j Mr Massey at points was iust a little involved in his attempt to reconcile the ; actual functions of a eonsttutionnl nmnI art'll with the popular conception of a ! Kino, but on the w hole his speech was (dear, concise and intensely interesting j There were a number of interjections j of rdi appreciative and illuminative character as the story progressed, one of the happiest mining from Mr K. .1. Howard, the Labour member for Christchurch Smith, who when the Minister was hesitating for an adequate term to describe the relations between the Mother Country and her Dominions suggested, in his droll wav. that the Km pi re was one hip union. “I hat is what the Kmpire is,” was Air Massey's ready acceptance of the suggestion, •‘and | hope will continue to he one hip Kmpire union for all time.” And such was tin 1 tempei of the House thrnugh<iut the briphtest sittinp of the session